,m^i  . 


7i^m 


BL  263  .M32  1883 
McCosh,  James,  1811-1894 
Development 


I 


PHILOSOPHIC  SERIES— No.  Ill, 


DEVELOPMENT 


WHAT  IT  CAN  DO 


WHAT  IT  CANNOT  DO 


BY  ' 

JAMES    McCOSH,   D.D.,   LL.D.,   D.L. 

AuTHOB  OF  "Thb  Method  of  Divine  Government,"  "Emotions,"  etc. 
Pkesident  of  Princeton  College 


NEW  YORK 

CHARLES    SORIBNER'S    SONS 

1883 


Copyright,   1883,  by 
CHARLES   SCHIBNER'S   SONS 


Trow's 

Printing  and  Bookbinding  Companv 

201-213  ^«J^  Twelfth  Street 

NEW  YORK 


^*J 


TABLE    OF   CONTENTS. 


SECTION  I. 

PAGE 

Development  is  an  Organized  Causation,      ....      3 

SECTION  II. 
Development  is  Causation  Working  in  an  Environment,  .      6 

SECTION  III. 

Regular  Results  from  Combined  Causation  and  Environ- 
ment,        8 

SECTION  IV. 
Evolution  in  Inanimate  Nature, 12 

SECTION  V. 
Development  in  Organic  Nature, 17 

SECTION  VI. 
What  Development  cannot  do, 24 

SECTION  vn. 

New  Powers  Appearing  in  the  Ages 28 


IV  TABLE   OF   CONTENTS. 

SECTION  VIII. 

FAOK 

The  New  Powers  Working  with  the  Old,     ....    36 

SECTION  IX. 
Spiritual  Powers, ,       .    39 


SECTION  X. 
Oversights  m  Spencer's  Evolution, 47 


DEVELOPMENT 

WHAT  IT  CAN   DO  AND  WHAT  IT  CANNOT  DO. 


The  phrases  Development  and  Evolution,  so  frequently 
used  in  the  present  day,  have  much  the  same  meaning. 
Both  point  to  one  operation  seen  under  somewhat  different 
aspects.  Development  is  the  process  going  on,  wliereas 
evolution  rather  refers  to  the  process  as  we  look  back  upon 
it.  We  speak  of  the  seed  developing  into  the  plant,  and 
the  plant  being  evolved  from  the  seed. 

There  is  a  constant  employment  of  the  phrases  and  a 
continued  reference  to  the  process.  But  there  is  an 
equally  persistent  avoidance  of  an  explanation  of  its  pre- 
cise nature.  Instances,  many  rich  and  varied,  are  given, 
and  inferences  legitimate  and  illegitimate  are  drawn ;  but 
there  has  not  been  a  wise,  judicious,  and  scientific  attempt 
to  explicate  its  components,  to  spread  out  its  contents,  and 
prescribe  its  boundary. 

The  phrases  are  used  to  cover  all  sorts  of  meanings — 
"  it  is  a  great  sheet  let  down  by  the  four  corners  upon  the 
earth,  wherein  are  all  manner  of  four-footed  beasts  and 
creeping  things  of  the  earth,  and  fowls  of  heaven."  Evo- 
lution in  itself  is  a  great  vehicle  moving  on  from  age 
to  age,  and  from  world  to  woi-ld,  carrying  with  it  all  sorts 
of  wares,  precious  and  baser  metals,  suns  and  soils,  flowers 


2  DEVELOPMENT. 

and  weeds.     Scientific  men  discourse  profoundly  of  the 
development   of  worlds  and  systems  of  worlds,  of  plants 
and  animals,  of  individuals  and  of  species,  from  the  monad 
on  to  man.     But  we  hear  and  read  also  of  the  develop- 
ment of  the  resources  of  a  country,  of  its  wealth,  its  mines, 
its  o-old  and  silver;    its  crops  and  corn,  its  wheat   and 
fruits ;  of  its  sheep,  cattle,  and  horses ;    of  its  industry, 
its  trade  and  commerce  ;  of  its  cities,  their  streets,  houses, 
and  harbors;    of  its  education,  its  colleges  and  schools. 
They  give  you  histories  of  the  development  of  the  sciences 
of    astronomy,   chemistry,    and   geology,   of  literature  in 
prose  and  poetry ;  of  language  from  its  simpler  forms  up 
to  the  higher,  such  as  Greek,  German,  or  English  ;  of  the 
fine  arts,  as  painting,  sculpture,  and  architecture,  from  their 
ruder  to  their  highest  shapes ;   and  of  the  useful  arts,  as 
masonry,  carpentry,  and  engine-making.    They  talk,  too,  of 
the  evolution  of  things  from  a  simpler  to  a  more  complex 
state ;  of  pottery,  of  wax-work,  of  metal-work,  of  vases, 
of  dinner-sets,  and  tea-cups.     It  must  surely  be  a  compre- 
liensive  phrase,  or  quite  as  possibly  a  loose  and  ambiguous 
one,  which  embraces  all  these  things  and  a  thousand  more. 
In  these  circumstances  it  is  surely  of  moment,  when 
any   one   is   talking   of   development,  for  or   against,  to 
insist  on  his  telling  us  precisely  what  he  means  by  it.     "  I 
am  sick,"  says  the  man  of  common  sense,  who  is  not  to  be 
taken  in  with  high-sounding  phrases,  *'  of  this  pretentious 
power ;  I  prefer  the   old  way  of  speaking,  when  it  was 
believed  that  all  thinsis  came  from  God."     But  I  ask  this 
man,  who  is  after  all  making  large  pretentions  to  uncom- 
mon sense,  whether  he  is  prepared  to  affirm  that  he  was 
not  developed  from  his  good  father  and  mother ;  whether 
he,  the  man  ,of  forty,  has  not  grown  out  of  that  boy  whom 
he  pleasantly  renjiembers  going  to  school  at  the  age  of  six. 
But  I  am  a  religious  man,  he  tells  us,  and  I  am  sure  that 


AMBIGUITY    OF  THE   PHRASES.  3 

God  and  not  development  guides  the  universe.  But  if  lie 
will  listen  to  me,  I  venture  to  ask  liim  whether  he  has 
an  J  right  to  dictate  to  Deity  how  he  shall  govern  his  own 
world  ;  whether  hy  development  or  in  some  other  way ; 
whether  God  may  not  have  made  this  man  himself  to  grow 
by  development;  and  whether  the  same  God  has  not 
evolved  the  Christian  from  the  Jewish  faith,  and  the  Jevv- 
isli  from  the  patriarchal.  When  we  lay  down  the  rigid 
rule  for  ourselves,  that  we  explain  beforehand  what  we 
mean  by  the  phrases  we  employ,  we  are  in  a  better  posi- 
tion to  require  the  same  on  the  part  of  our  opponent, 
and  to  insist  on  knowing  what  he  means  by  the  evolution 
he  is  defending.  An  evolution  out  of  nothing  ?  An  evolu- 
tion without  a  God  to  set  it  agoing  or  to  guide  it  ?  An 
evolution  of  life  from  the  lifeless  ?  Of  mind  from  the 
mindless  ?  Of  man  from  the  monkey  ?  Of  the  monkey 
from  the  mollusc  ?  Of  the  mollusc  from  the  monad  ?  Of 
all  from  the  senseless  molecule  ? 


SECTION  I. 

DEVELOPMENT    IS   AN   ORGANIZED    CAUSATION. 

Development  is  evidently  not  a  simple  power  in  nature, 
like  mechanical  force,  or  chemical  affinity,  or  gravitation. 
It  is  clear  that  there  is  a  vast,  an  incalculable  number  and 
variety  of  agencies  in  the  process,  whether  it  be  the  de- 
velopment of  a  sun  from  star-dust,  of  the  plant  from  its 
seed,  of  the  bird  from  its  eo^jr,  the  horse  from  its  dam,  of 
the  threshing-machine  from  the  flail,  of  the  reaping-ma- 
chine from  the  reaping-hook,  of  our  present  kitchen 
utensils  from  those  used  by  our  grandmother.  The  ques- 
tion arises  :    Is  there  anv  unity  in  "  the  thousand  and  one  " 


4       DEVELOPMENT   IS    AN    ORGANIZED    CAUSATION. 

things  that  act  in  the  process  ?  I  believe  that  there  is. 
Let  us  inquire  what  it  is,  and  this  will  settle  for  us  what 
truth  and  what  error  there  is  in  the  common  expositions, 
that  is  development  of  developments. 

The  one  common  quality  in  the  process  as  denoted  by 
the  phrases  is,  that  one  thing  is  developed  into  another 
thing,  and  that  one  thing  is  evolved  from  another.  But 
it  is  universally  regarded  as  settled  that  when  one  thing 
produces  another,  or  is  produced  out  of  another,  it  is  by 
causation.  It  follows  that  there  must  be  causation  in  de- 
velopment. Causation  necessitates  development.  This  fol- 
lows from  the  nature  of  cause  and  effect  as  it  is  commonly 
apprehended.  It  follows  more  particularly  from  the  view 
which  I  have  given  of  Energy  in  the  paper  on  the  subject 
in  this  series.  I  have  shown  that  in  physical  action  the 
cause  always  consists  in  two  or  more  bodies  which  act  on 
each  other,  and  that  the  effect  consists  of  the  same  bodies 
modified ;  that  the  ball  A  striking  the  ball  B  constitutes 
the  cause,  and  that  the  effect  consists  of  the  ball  B  gaining 
the  energy  which  A  loses.  But  I  need  not  insist  on  this 
here,  as  whatever  be  our  theory  of  causation,  the  cause 
must  be  regarded  as  developing  the  effect,  and  the  effect 
as  evolved  from  the  cause. 

It  has  been  generally  admitted  for  the  last  two  or  three 
centuries  (it  was  anticipated  in  a  vague  way  from  the  com- 
mencement of  reflection)  that  causation  works  through  all 
nature,  not  only  divine  causation  but  physical  causation, 
that  is,  that  the  ordinary  occurrences  of  nature  are  pro- 
duced by  agents  acting  causally.  In  other  words,  fire 
burns,  light  shines,  and  the  earth  spins  round  its  axis  and 
rotates  around  the  sun,  and  as  the  issue  we  have  heat  and 
light,  and  the  beneficent  seasons.  Men  of  enlarged  minds 
do  now  acknowledge  that  in  the  doctrine  of  universal  causa- 
tion, of  God  acting  everywhere  through  second  causes, 


{\ 


CAUSATION    LP:ADS   TO    DEVELOPMENT.  5 

there  is  nothing  irreligious*  On  tlie  contrary,  the  circum- 
stance that  God  proceeds  in  a  regular  manner  which  can 
be  anticipated,  is  evidently  for  the  benefit  of  intelligent 
beings  who  can  thus  so  far  foresee  the  future  and  prepare 
for  it  a'ld  act  upon  it.  But  causation  leads  to  develop- 
ment. If  there  be  nothing  irreligious  in  causation,  as  lit- 
tle is  there  impiety  in  the  development  which  issues  from 
it.  It  will  be  shown  that  development  by  causation  is  the 
plan  by  which  God  carries  on  his  works,  thus  connecting 
the  past  with  the  present,  and  the  present  with  the  future. 
It  was  my  privilege  in  my  earliest  published  work  to  jus- 
tif}^  God's  method  of  procedure  by  natural  cause  and  natu- 
ral law,  as  specially  adapted  to  man's  constitution.'  I 
reckon  it  as  a  like  privilege  in  my  declining  life  to  be  able 
to  defend  God's  way  of  acting  by  development,  which 
gives  a  consecutive  unity  to  all  nature,  and  as  a  stream 
from  the  throne  of  God  flows  through  all  time,  widening 
and  deepening  till  it  covers  the  earth,  as  the  waters  do  the 
sea,  with  the  riches  it  carries. 

But  development,  while  it  is  carried  on  by  causation, 
does  not  consist  of  a  single  chain  with  successive  causes 
and  effects  as  its  links.  The  causes  as  thej^  operate  com- 
bine and  the  effects  are  joint,  and  we  have  a  great  reticu- 
lated machine.  Development  is  essentially  a  combination 
of  causes.  It  is  a  corporation  of  causes  for  mutual  action, 
an  organized  causation  for  ends.  The  past  has  developed 
into  the  present,  which  will  develop  into  the  future.  The 
configuration  of  the  earth,  its  hills  and  dales,  its  rivers  and 
seas,  which  determine  the  abodes  and  industries  of  men, 
and  the  bounds  of  their  habitation  have  been  produced  by 
agencies  w^hich  have  been  working  for  millions  of  years. 
The  present  is  the  fruit  of  the  past  and  contains  the  seed 

'  Method  of  Diviue  Government,  Plijsical  and  Moral. 


6        CAUSATION   WOEKING   IN    AN   ENVIRONMENT. 

of  the  future.  The  plants  now  on  the  earth  are  the  de- 
scendants of  those  created  by  God,  and  the  ancestors  of 
those  that  are  to  appear  in  the  ages  to  come. 

There  is  through  all  times,  as  in  the  year,  a  succession 
of  seasons  ;  sowing  and  reaping,  sowing  in  order  to  reap, 
and  reaping  what  has  been  sown  in  order  to  its  being  sown 
again.  This  gives  a  continuousness,  a  consistency,  to  na- 
ture amidst  all  the  mutations  of  time.  There  is  not  only 
a  contemporaneous  order  in  nature,  there  is  a  successive 
order.  The  beginning  leads  to  the  end,  and  the  end  is  the 
issue  of  the  beginning.  This  grass  and  grain,  and  these 
forests  that  cover  the  ground,  have  seed  in  them  which 
will  continue  in  undefined  ages  to  adorn  and  enrich  the 
ground.  These  birds  that  sing  among  the  branches,  and 
these  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills,  will  build  nests  and  rear 
young  to  furnish  nourishmentiind  delight  to  our  children's 
children  in  millennial  ages.  Every  naturalist  has  seen  a 
purpose  gained  by  the  nutriment  laid  up  in  the  seed  or 
pod  to  feed  the  young  plant.  I  see  a  higher  end  accom- 
plished by  the  mother  provided  for  the  young  animal. 
That  infant  is  not  cast  forth  into  the  cold  world  unpro- 
tected :  it  has  a  mother's  arms  to  protect  it  and  a  mother's 
love  to  fondle  it.  Development  is  not  in  itself  an  irreli- 
gious process ;  every  one  who  has  been  reared  under  a 
father's  care  and  a  mother's  love  will  bless  God  for  it. 


SECTION  II. 

DEVELOPMENT   IS    CAUSATION    W^ORKING   IN   AN    ENVIRONMENT. 

Science  has  not  determined,  and  never  may  be  able  to 
determine,  what  are  the  original  constituents  of  the  universe. 
Some  are  fond  of  looking  upon  them  as  atoms,  some  repre- 
sent them  as  centres  of  force,  others  w^ill  allow  them  to  be 


AGENTS   FORM   CAUSES.  7 

only  centres  of  motion — with  nothing  to  move !  AVhatever 
they  be,  there  must  be  millions  of  millions  of  them  work- 
ing in  the  knowable  world. 

It  is  by  no  means  certain  that  we  have  been  able  to  de- 
termine what  is  the  number  of  elementary  bodies  in  the 
world.  The  ancient  Greek  division  into  earth,  water,  air, 
and  fire,  merely  pointed  in  a  rude  way  to  a  division  of 
states — the  solid,  the  fluid,  the  vaporous,  and  the  ethereal. 
The  number  of  elements  is  supposed  for  the  present  and 
provisionally  to  be  sixty-five,  but  most  chemists  believe 
that  some  of  these  may  be  I'esolved  into  components. 

It  would  be  wrong  in  us  to  aflirm  dogmatically  that  we 
know  what  are  the  varied  forces,  or,  as  some  would  prefer 
expressing  them,  the  powers  of  producing  motion.  One 
point,  however,  has  been  established  in  our  day,  that  all  the 
physical  energies  are  in  a  sense  one ;  that  they  are  all — be 
it  the  mechanical,  chemical,  vital,  electric — correlated,  and 
that  their  sum,  real  and  potential,  cannot  be  increased  or 
diminished. 

What  we  have  to  do  is  to  observe  these  entities,  elements, 
or  powers  as  working,  and  to  notice  in  particular  that  they 
operate  in  the  way  of  evolution. 

These  existences,  with  their  energies,  combine  to  form 
causes,  and  these  form  combined  or  organized  causes.  All 
of  them  have  affinities  with  each  other.  Some  of  these  are 
stronger  than  others  in  themselves,  or  from  the  relative 
position  which  they  occupy.  These  combine  in  their  action. 
"VYe  may  represent  the  agencies  at  work  by  the  letters  of 
the  alphabet.  A,  B,  C,  etc.  A  number  of  these,  say  A,  D, 
P,  S,  may  join  and  produce  powerful  individual  occurrences 
— an  earthquake,  a  volcano,  a  conflagration,  a  revolution. 
Or  they  may  abide  and  produce  general  issues,  continued  for 
hours,  or  days,  or  years.  Thus  the  winds  combine  and 
go  in  currents,  and  we  have  the  trade-winds.     Thus  the 


8      RESULTS   FROM  CAUSATION  AND  ENVIRONMENT. 

waters  of  the  ocean  are  made  to  flow  in  one  direction,  and 
we  have  the  Gulf  Stream,  and  the  cold  wave  from  Labrador. 
But  these  organized  causal  operations  do  not  embrace, 
in  at  least  an  appreciable  or  calculable  manner,  all  the 
powers  or  causes  of  the  universe ;  they  comprise  only  a 
portion  as  in  conspicuous  operation.  The  causes  that  pro- 
duce a  cyclone  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  may  have  no  percep- 
tible connection  with  those  that  produce  a  flood  in  the 
rivers  of  America.  The  moral  agencies  that  produce  a 
revolution  in  Paris,  may  have  no  visible  relation  with  the 
discontent  which  leads  the  Indians  to  rise  and  murder  their 
white  neighbors  in  America.  But  there  is  no  set  of  causes 
in  our  world  so  isolated  that  they  have  no  connection  with 
surrounding  causes.  Possibly  A,  D,  P,  S  have  some  rela- 
tionship with  B,  E,  Q,  T.  These  other  powers  will  so  far 
act  on  the  organized  causation  and  modify  it,  it  may  be  in 
the  way  of  strengthening  or  weakening  the  tendency,  or 
giving  a  special  direction  to  the  stream.  While  they  do 
so,  they  will  themselves  be  affected,  perhaps  be  absorbed 
or  driven  off.  The  winds  and  ocean  currents  are  all  affect- 
/-ed  by  the  nature  of  the  land  over  which  they  travel.  The 
/  tides  are  directed  by  the  nature  of  the  shore,  and  the  sea- 
sons, by,  it  may  be,  various  solar  or  lunar  influences.  Every 
combined  mundane  agency  has  a  sphere,  and  this  sphere 
lias  an  atmosphei-e,  or  an  evironment  as  it  is  called,  which 
it  so  far  sways,  and  by  which  it  may  be  swayed. 


SECTION  m. 


REGULAR    RESULTS    FROM    COMBINED  CAUSATION  AND  ENVIRON- 
MENT. 

The  former  is  a  stream  receiving  contributions  as  it  flows 
on  from  the  other,  which  constitutes  its  banks,  that  are 
watered  by  it,  it  may  be  formed  by  it.     From  the  inter- 


REGULAR   RESULTS.  9 

action,  specially  from  the  unions  and  separations,  there  fol- 
low certain  regularities  which  are  worthy  of  notice. 

There  are  courses  which  go  on  for  a  time  and  then  dis- 
appear. The  wind  arises  from  there  being  a  comparative 
vacuum  somewhere,  into  which  it  rushes,  and  then  sinks 
because  the  inequality  is  so  far  filled.  There  is  a  high 
tide  produced  when  the  moon  and  sun  are  pulling  in  one 
way,  but  it  ceases  when  the  two  are  not  acting  in  unison. 
There  are  epochs  in  which  certain  motives  or  impulses 
prevail — periods  of  war  and  conquest,  periods  of  commercial 
enterprises,  periods  of  the  cultivation  of  the  fine  arts; 
these  have  public  opinion  for  a  time  in  their  favor,  and 
then  give  way  before  something  else.  In  all  such  cases  the 
combination  of  the  causes  producing  the  movement  is 
loosened  and  new  combinations  are  formed. 

There  are  results  that  abide  the  same  from  year  to  year, 
and  from  age  to  age  :  that  stream  has  for  a  thousand  years 
risen  in  the  same  fountain,  among  the  same  hills,  and 
flowed  through  the  same  valleys  into  the  same  creek 
of  the  ocean.  Thus  there  are  plants  and  animals  now 
living  which  have  not  been  visibly  changed  since  they 
appeared  millions  of  years  ago  in  the  early  geological 
ages.  The  Chinese  have  continued  much  the  same  in 
character,  occupations,  and  mode  of  life,  for  thousands  of 
years.  In  all  such  cases  the  same  causes  have  conthmed 
to  act  and  produce  the  same  effects.  In  other  cases  there 
have  been  irruptions,  convulsions,  and  wars  which  have 
produced  new  modes  of  life ;  such,  for  instance,  was  the 
irruption  of  the  hordes  from  the  northeast  upon  the  de- 
caying Roman  empire. 

The  most  curious  instances  of  regularities  are  those 
which  are  periodic.  A  certain  combination  of  causes  pro- 
duces certain  issues,  and  is  then  dissolved,  to  be  succeeded 
after  a  certain  time  by  the  formation  of  a  like  combina- 


10    RESULTS  FROM  CAUSATION  AND  ENVIRONMENT. 

tion  and  the  same  issues  following.  It  is  thus  that  at 
certain  seasons  there  are  daily  sea-breezes  and  daily  land- 
breezes.  As  more  marked  and  obvious  we  have  the 
seasons.  "  While  the  earth  remaineth,  seed-time  and 
harvest,  and  cold  and  heat,  and  summer  and  winter,  and 
day  and  night  shall  not  cease."  Here  w^e  have  sun  and 
seed  and  soil  concurring  to  produce  an  orderly  series  of 
events  which  run  their  course  and  are  succeeded  by  a 
like  series.  Malarial  influences  are  introduced  into  the 
system,  which  take  a  certain  time  to  work  and  to  be  cast 
off  ;  and  we  have  diseases  lasting  four  days  or  ten  days  or 
fourteen  days.  We  have  such  a  periodic  process  in  every 
plant  springing  from  a  seed,  and  every  animal  from  a 
germ,  having  a  growth  and  an  average  life  and  then  dy- 
ing, but  first  producing  a  new  life.  W^e  have  such  periods 
in  the  movements  of  the  heavenly  bodies,  as  in  the  preces- 
sion of  the  equinoxes. 

It  is  more  to  our  present  purpose  to  remark  that  in  de- 
velopment there  is  usually  progression.  At  times  indeed 
there  is  degeneracy,  as  when  plants  do  not  thrive  in  a  nig- 
gardly soil,  and  animals  get  weaker  in  a  deleterious  cli- 
mate. But,  upon  the  whole,  there  has  been  an  advance  in 
our  earth  from  age  to  age.  The  tendency  of  animal  life 
is  generally  upward,  from  all  fours  to  the  upright  position, 
from  which  men  can  look  up  to  heaven.  There  are  spe- 
cies of  plants  and  animals  which  have  become  larger  and 
more  robust.  Geological  causes  made  our  earth  fit  for  the 
abode  of  man,  who  had  cereals  and  cattle  provided  for 
him.  Human  beings  have  come  to  occupy  places  which 
in  earlier  ages  were  handed  over  to  wild  animals.  There 
is  now  a  larger  amount  of  animal  food  than  in  any  pre- 
vious age.  As  the  ages  roll  on  there  is  a  greater  fulness 
of  sentient  life,  and  a  larger  capacity  of  happiness.  The 
average  life  of  human  beings  in  civilized  countries  is  in- 


DIFFERENTIATION   AND   INTEGRATION.  11 

creasing.  The  intellectual  powers  have  been  made  stronger 
and  firmer,  like  the  trunk  of  a  tree,  and  the  feelings,  like 
the  flowers,  have  been  made  by  culture  to  take  a  fuller 
expansion  and  a  richer  color. 

Under  this  head  may  be  placed  those  grand  generaliza- 
tions which  have  been  so  magnified  by  Herbert  Spencer  in 
his  "  First  Principles."  He  assumes  a  Persistence  of  Force 
in  the  universe,  derived  from  an  unknow^n  and  unknow- 
able power  beneath  it.  This  leads  to  a  constant  differentia- 
tion and  integration ;  in  simpler  terms,  a  separation  of  ele- 
ments, and  again  an  aggregation.  He  shows  that  ''  any 
finite  homogeneous  aggregate  must  lose  its  homogeneity, 
through  the  unequal  exposure  of  its  parts  to  incident 
forces."  Hence  the  instability  of  the  homogeneous  and 
the  pei'petual  motion  in  the  universe.  This  scattering 
issues  in  an  integration.  The  result  is  to  change  an  indefi- 
nitfe  homogeneity  into  a  definite  heterogeneity,  and  then 
aggregates  of  all  orders  are  evolved.  Everywhere  there  is 
a  change  from  a  confused  simplicity  to  a  distinct  complex- 
ity, from  a  diffusion  to  a  concenti-ation.  But  opposed  there 
may  be  a  more  powerful  attraction  which  separates  and 
diffuses  the  aggregate  :  "  Evolution  and  dissolution  as  to- 
gether making  up  the  entire  process  through  which  things 
pass."  "  There  is  habitually  a  passage  from  homogeneity 
to  heterogeneity,  along  wath  the  passage  from  diffusion  to 
concentration."  This  may  be  expressed  in  terms  of  Matter 
and  Motion,  "and  if  so,  it  must  be  a  statement  of  the 
truth  that  the  concentration  of  Matter  implies  the  dissipa- 
tion of  Motion,  and  that,  conversely,  the  absorption  of 
Motion  implies  the  diffusion  of  Matter."  In  the  end,  to 
the  vast  aggregate,  even  to  the  earth  itself,  Dissohition 
must  eventually  arrive,  and  "  universal  Evolution  will  be 
followed  by  universal  Dissolution." 

These  generalizations  are  very  w4de,  and  the  conclusions 


12  EVOLUTION   IN   INANIMATE   NATURE. 

far  reaching.  Possibly  there  may  be  gaps  in  the  processes. 
The  giant,  in  marching  on  with  his  seven-leagued  boots, 
may  have  overlooked  many  agencies  which  modify  his 
theories.  He  is  wrong  in  declaring  that  the  power  under- 
neath the  persistence  of  force  is  unknown  and  unknowable. 
According  to  his  own  account  it  is  so  far  known,  it  is 
known  to  be  a  power,  and  a  power  persisting  and  working 
certain  effects.  It  can  be  shown  to  be  a  power  character- 
ized by  wisdom  and  love.  He  omits  certain  powers  which 
are  as  patent  as  those  he  notices.  In  particular  he  regards 
mind  as  consisting  of  nerves,  and  overlooks  all  its  special 
properties — of  intelligence,  conscience,  and  will.  When 
these  are  introduced  they  give  a  new,  and,  I  venture  to 
say,  a  juster  and  more  attractive  aspect  to  the  whole  of 
nature.  I  am  not  satisfied  when  I  find  myself  and  my 
friends  represented  as  mere  developments  from  homogene- 
ous matter,  produced  by  diiferentiation.  But  I  am  willing 
to  accept  his  generalizations  so  far  as  the  physical  powers 
of  nature  are  concerned. 


SECTION  IV. 

EVOLUTION    IN   INANIMATE   NATURE. 

"  Evolution,"  says  Herbert  Spencer,  "  is  a  change  from 
an  indefinite  incoherent  homogeneity  to  a  definite  coherent 
hlo^geneity  through  a  continuous  differentiation  and  in- 
teo-ration."  I  am  willing  to  take  this  doctrine,  but  I  have 
to  unfold  it  in  my  own  way,  which  will  be  less  technical, 
but  fully  as  accordant  with  facts. 

In  nature  there  is  a  very  large,  but  still  definite  number 
of  bodies,  all  acting  causally.  As  they  act  a  number  are 
drawn  into  aggregates  by  their  mutual  attractions  or  af- 


PROGRESSION   AND   DESIGN.  13 

finities,  or  their  proximity.  The  action  is  of  the  nature  of 
causation  ;  I  call  it  a  combined  or  organized  causation. 
Thus,  in  our  mundane  system,  we  have  the  sun,  planets, 
and  moons,  with  a  certain  shape — an  oblate  spheroid — with 
a  rotation  round  their  axes  and  round  each  other.  These 
may  be  regarded  as  developments  produced  by  differentia- 
tion. As  a  result  of  the  collocation  of  the  sun  and  the 
earth  we  have  the  seasons,  with  their  regularities  and  their 
irregularities.  We  have  also  had  the  stratified  structure  of 
the  earth,  and  mountains  heaved  up,  and  valleys  between. 
All  this  has  arisen  very  much  from  combined  causation. 
In  the  aggregates  produced  there  are  internal  changes  go- 
ing on.  Thus  the  earth  is  supposed  in  the  geological  ages 
to  have  become  cooled  and  fitted  for  the  abodes  of  ani- 
mated beings.  But  the  combination  of  causes  is  in  the 
centre  of  an  immense  number  of  other  causes,  which  may 
be  called  its  surroundings,  or,  more  technicalh',  an  environ- 
ment. The  aggregate  and  its  environment  act  on  each 
other  and  produce  farther  changes,  it  may  be  in  accumu- 
lation, say  in  adding  plant-fostering  soil  on  the  earth's  sur- 
face, or  washing  away  seas  and  increasing  dry  land. 

But  there  is  a  second  characteristic  of  development  ob- 
servable everywhere  in  nature,  and  that  is  a  progression. 
There  is  an  advance  from  a  homogeneous  to  a  more  differ- 
entiated state  in  which  new  aggregates  with  their  functions 
appear.  This  may  be  produced  by  accumulations  of  forces 
breaking  out  in  convulsions,  which  change  so  far  the  face 
of  the  earth ;  or  more  frequently  by  small  increments,  as 
the  growth  of  soil  by  the  decay  of  plants. 

In  all  this  I  discover  order  and  design.  I  do  not  see 
that  the  constituents  of  the  world,  its  atoms  or  molecules, 
necessarily  produce  beneficent  results.  If  left  to  them- 
selves they  might  produce  evil  quite  as  easily  and  naturally 
as  good,  and  might  have  been  formed  into  destrnctiv^e 


14  eyolutio:n^  in  inanimate  nature. 

machines  and  pestiferous  creatures,  into  flaming  meteors 
with  burning  worlds,  into  serpents  and  wild  beasts  devour- 
ing each  other  and  arresting  all  forms  of  beauty  and  bene- 
ficence, and  yet  incapable  of  dying.  But,  instead  of  this, 
these  million  agencies  combine  to  accomplish  good  and 
benign  ends,  so  as  to  show  that  there  has  been  a  mind  dis- 
posing them  and  an  end  in  view. 

Let  us  notice,  first,  that  the  combination  of  elements 
acting  as  causes  has  produced  general  laws  and  beneficent 
order  :  in  the  seasons,  in  the  growth  of  the  plant — first  the 
blade,  then  the  ear,  then  the  full  corn  in  the  ear — in  the 
animal  enjoying  its  time,  and  handing  down  its  life  to 
another  generation.  All  this  is  not  the  action  of  simple 
properties  acting  fortuitously  or  fatally  ;  it  is  the  result 
of  the  adjustment  of  numerous  properties  of  matter — 
gravitating,  mechanical,  chemical,  electric — all  conspiring 
toward  an  end. 

Second!}'-,  the  combination  accomplishes  special  ends,  such 
as  those  so  happily  illustrated  by  Paley  and  other  writers  on 
natural  theology.  There  are,  for  example,  the  joints  of  the 
bodily  frame  composed  of  bones  that  fit  into  each  other  for 
good  ends,  namely,  easy  and  convenient  movements  ;  the 
firm  clasping  of  the  hand,  and  the  simple  forward  and 
backward  motion  of  the  fingers,  and  the  ball  and  socket 
at  the  shoulder  admitting  rotation  all  round.  There  are  the 
bodily  senses— the  eye,  the  ear,  and  touch — so  delicately 
adapted  to  the  external  world,  with  which  they  make  us  ac- 
quainted. There  is  the  whole  animal  frame,  made  up  of 
various  parts,  yet  all  combining  into  a  living  machine  of 
exquisite  structure. 

Xot  only  is  development,  when  properly  understood,  not 
inconsistent  with  religion,  it  will  be  found  that  the  com- 
bination and  adaptation  in  it  clearly  argue  design.  Sooner 
or  later  there  will  be  written  a  work  on  natural  theology, 


DESIGN   IN   DEVELOPMENT.  15 

after  the  manner  of  Paley,  showing  that  as  there  are  plan 
and  purpose  in  the  well-fitted  limbs  and  organs  of  animals, 
so  there  is  also  design,  and  this  quite  as  evident  and  as 
wondrous  in  the  way  in  which,  by  a  process  running 
through  ages,  the  bones  and  muscles  have  been  adjusted 
to  each  other  to  produce  the  horse  we  diive  or  ride  on. 
There  is  a  manifest  beneficent  end  in  the  knittings  of  our 
frame,  but  there  is  quite  as  palpable  a  purpose  in  the  way 
in  which  all  the  parts  have  been  moulded  in  the  geolo- 
gical ages,  and  handed  down  by  heredity. 

I  therefore  see  design  in  development.  There  is  an  ob- 
vious end  and  a  means  arranged  to  accomplish  it.  We 
notice  purpose  evident  in  the  development  which  man  is 
ever  accomplishing.  The  farmer  uses  a  series  of  agencies 
to  secure  a  crop :  he  ploughs,  he  harrows,  he  sows  seed, 
he  weeds,  and  in  the  end  he  gathers  in  a  crop.  The  teacher 
lays  out  a  plan  for  developing  the  faculties  of  his  pupils : 
he  imparts  knowledge,  he  corrects,  he  stimulates,  and  he 
reaches  his  aim,  the  improvement  of  the  mind  and  a 
■fitness  for  the  duties  of  life.  We  are  ever  noticing  cases 
in  which  there  is  need  of  co-operation  to  accomplish  an 
end.  A  house  is  built  and  furnished  because  a  number  of 
persons  have  done  each  his  part — the  mason,  the  carpenter, 
the  plumber,  the  slater,  the  glazier,  the  upholsterer.  A 
city  becomes  rich  because  the  merchants  have  been  far- 
sighted,  the  manufacturers  expert,  and  the  tradesmen  skil- 
ful and  industrious.  The  country  prospers  because  the 
master  and  the  servant,  the  schoolmaster  and  the  minister 
of  religion,  are  all  and  each  doing  their  part.  But  there 
are  still  more  wondrous  evidences  of  plan,  and  in  the  suc- 
cession of  the  seasons,  of  the  grass  and  grain  and  trees, 
and  in  the  living  creatures  advancing  in  fulness  and  strength, 
in  activity  and  beauty.  It  is  not  in  the  single  operation 
that  we  discover  evidence  of  a  purpose  so  much  as  in  their 


/ 


16  GOD   IN   DEVELOPMENT. 

organization  and  orderly  succession  and  development.  De- 
velopment is  a  sort  of  corporation  in  which  each  part,  like 
the  citizen,  fulfils  its  office.' 

Evolution  is  not,  any  more  than  gravitation,  chemical 
affinity,  or  any  other  power  or  law  of  nature,  an  irreligious 
process.  Spencer  accounts  for  all  its  operations  by  the  per- 
sistence of  force  beneath,  and  behind  which  he  feels  him- 
self obliged  to  place  an  unknown  power.  I,  too,  am  obliged 
to  place  such  a  power  ;  but  to  me  it  is  so  far  a  known  power. 
There  is  more  in  the  production  than  the  persistence  of 
force ;  there  is  an  arrangement  of  all  the  evolved  and  in- 
volved powers  to  work  for  an  end,  and  in  this  I  perceive 
design  and  intelligence.  I  do  not  stand  up  for  a  develop- 
ment any  more  than  I  do  for  a  gravitation  independent  of 
God.  I  see  God  in  the  persistence  of  force,  and  in  the 
beneficent  way  in  which  it  works.  I  can  see  a  good  pur- 
pose worthy  of  God  served  by  universal  gravitation,  in 
binding  together  all  the  parts  of  the  universe,  however 
widely  sundered.  But  I  can  also  discover  it  to  be  a  benefi- 
cent arrangement,  whereby  by  evolution  the  present  is  con- 
nected with  the  past  and  the  future,  and  the  most  remote 
times  are  brought  together.  I  do  not  say  that  God  could 
not  have  accomplished  these  ends  in  some  other  way,  but 
he  has  actually  effected  them  by  means  of  causation  and 
evolution,  and  I  bless  him  for  it. 

1  see  God  in  development  throughout,  and  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  Because  a  rose,  a  dog,  or  liorse  is  gendered  by 
natural  causes,  it  is  not  less  the  work  of  God.  Our  finest 
roses  are  deris-ed  from  the  common  dog  rose  of  Europe  {^Eosa 


'  I  am  not  here  constructing  or  defending  the  theistic  argument.  If 
it  be  objected  that  the  existence  of  pain  sets  aside  teleology,  I  simply 
say  that  I  am  not  to  enter  on  the  subject  of  the  mystery  of  evil,  but  I 
hold  that  there  may  be  evidence  of  the  existence  both  of  suffering  and 
of  love  in  one  and  the  same  world. 


DEVELOPMENT  IN  ORGANIC  NATURE.      17 

canina) :  that  rose  with  its  simple  beauty  by  the  roadside  is 
the  divine  workmanship  ;  but  so  is  the  rose  with  the  fullest 
form  and  the  gayest  color  in  our  gardens.  God,  who  rewards 
us  for  opening  our  eyes  upon  his  works,  gives  higher  rewards 
to  those  who,  in  love  to  him,  or  to  them,  bestow  labor  and 
pains  upon  them.  Dogs,  it  is  said,  have  descended  from 
some  kind  of  wolf.  This  does  not  make  the  highly  de- 
veloped shepherd  or  St.  Bernard  dog,  with  their  won- 
drous instincts,  not  to  be  the  divine  workmanship.  Just 
as  little  does  the  hypothesis  that  our  living  horse  is  de- 
scended from  the  pliohippos,  and  this  from  the  miohippos, 
and  this  again  from  the  small  eohippos,  which  used  to 
tread  with  its  five  toes  on  marshy  ground,  prove  that  the 
animal  we  ride  on,  so  useful  and  so  graceful,  so  agile,  and 
so  docile,  is  not  the  creature  of  the  Creator  who  formed  it 
and  endowed  it  with  the  power  of  evolution. 


SECTION  V. 

DEVELOPMENT  IN  ORGANIC  NATURE. 

There  is  no  difficulty  presented  to  the  religious  man  in 
development,  so  far  as  it  relates  to  inanimate  nature ;  he 
may  believe  in  evolution  as  a  mode  of  divine  operation. 
Doubts  and  difficulties  arise  when  he  is  required  to  assent 
to  its  universal  application  to  every  form  of  organized  be- 
ing. But  surely  if  it  exists  and  is  prevalent  in  dead  matter 
without  being  atheistic  it  may  also  be  allowed  in  plants 
and  animals. 

It  is  admitted  on  all  hands  to  have  a  place  and  power  in 
the  individual  plant  and  animal,  both  of  which  proceed 
from  the  seed  or  germ,  take  a  typical  form,  and  have  a 
normal  time  to  live  and  produce  an  offspring.     There  is  a 


18  DEVELOPMEXT   IN    INDIVIDUALS. 

sense  in  which  the  oak  is  in  the  acorn,  the  child  is  father 
of  the  man.  Both  grow  partly  by  internal  powers  and 
arrangements,  and  partly  by  external  nourishment  and 
accretions  from  day  to  day,  and  from  year  to  year.  If 
any  one  regards  this  as  taking  place  independent  of  God, 
he  is  so  far  an  atheist.  If  he  believes  it  to  be  accomplished 
by  the  power  of  God,  he  is  thus  far  a  true  theist,  and  his 
heart  may  be  filled  with  adoration  and  his  mouth  with 
praise. 

^^ot  only  is  there  development  in  the  individual,  but 
also  in  the  succession  of  individuals.  There  is  here  a  ro- 
tation, the  egg  from  the  living  being  developed  into  a 
new  living  being,  producing  a  new  egg.  It  is  equally  true 
that  the  bird  is  from  the  egg  and  the  egg  from  the  bird, 
and  both  by  evolution.  Iso  one  will  speak  against  such 
an  arrangement,  as  it  provides  children  for  the  comfort  of 
parents  and  parents  to  care  for  children. 

But  disputes  arise  when  development  is  carried  farther. 
It  is  allowed  that  there  is  development  in  the  individual, 
but  may  it  also  take  place  in  the  species  ?  In  other  words, 
can  one  species  grow  out  of  another  ?  To  clear  the  ground 
for  a  fair  discussion  let  us  look  at  what  is  admitted. 

It  is  allowed,  nay,  maintained,  that  there  is  such  a  thing 
in  nature  as  distinct  species,  genera,  and  orders.  These,  in 
ordinary  circumstances,  cannot  be  changed  into  each  other. 
The  lily  cannot  be  transmuted  into  the  rose,  nor  the  sheep 
into  the  goat.  In  the  common  operations  of  nature  every 
plant  and  animal  is  after  its  kind  or  species.  Figs  do  not 
produce  thistles,  nor  do  thistles  produce  figs. 

It  is  also  admitted  by  all  that  species  develop  varieties.' 

'  Prof.  Asa  Gray  writes:  "The  facts,  so  far  as  I  can  judge,  do  not 
support  the  assumption  of  every  sided  and  indifferent  variations.  The 
variations  do  not  tend  in  many  directions ;  the  variations  seem  to  be 
an  internal  response  to  external  impressions." 


DEVELOPMENT  IN   SPECIES.  19 

I  believe  there  is  no  one  tree — oak  or  pine,  elm  or  birch- 
precisely  the  same  in  the  old  world  and  in  the  new.  What 
a  variety  of  pigeons  are  there,  all  descended,  it  is  supposed, 
from  the  rock  pigeon.  These  varieties  are  produced  inter- 
nally, largely  by  external  circumstances,  that  is,  by  the  en- 
vironment. In  a  barren  soil  and  a  severe  climate  an  oak 
will  become  dwarfed  and  its  descendants  will  be  the  same. 
The  dog  can  be  trained  to  point  at  game,  and  a  breed  will 
be  produced  possessing  this  aptitude.  It  has  to  be  added 
that  these  varieties  tend  to  return,  if  the  environment  does 
not  continue  to  prevent  it,  to  the  original  type  of  the  species. 
The  cultivated  plant,  cast  out  of  the  garden,  will  be  apt  to 
go  back  to  its  wild  state.  It  is  usual  also  that  when  animals 
of  different  species  have  paired,  the  horse  and  the  ass  for 
instance,  the  offspring — the  mule — is  not  prolilic  and  dies 
out. 

We  have  approached  the  battlefield  gradually,  but  now 
we  are  in  the  midst  of  the  fight,  and  we  may  watch  it, 
even  though  we  do  not  take  part  with  either  side.  Two 
grand  questions  are  before  us.  One  relates  to  the  pro- 
duction of  the  species  at  the  first.  Wej-e  the  species  of 
amoeba,  of  molluscs,  of  insects,  of  fishes,  of  reptiles,  of 
mammals  (the  consideration  of  man  had  best  be  deferred) 
created,  very  much  as  they  now  are,  by  the  immediate  fiat 
of  God  at  the  beginning,  or  as  the  ages  rolled  on  ?  Or  were 
they  evolved  out  of  a  previous  material  by  internal  laws 
of  development  and  by  constant  increments  from  the  en~ 
vironment  ?  The  second  question  is  intimately  connected 
with  the  first,  In  rare  and  extraordinary  circumstances 
can  new  species  come  forth  out  of  the  old,  as  varieties  do, 
and  these  go  down  by  heredity  ? 

The  opinions  of  the  ancients  on  such  a  subject  are  of  no 
value,  as  they  have  no  scientific  basis.  Many  deep  think- 
ers believed  in  spontaneous  generation,  and  supposed  that 


20      DEVELOPMENT  IN  ORGANIC  NATURE. 

lower  animated  creatures  came  out  of  tlie  sea  or  bubbled 
out  of  marshes,  and  they  did  not  see  anything  irreligious 
in  this,  as  they,  or  at  least  a  number  of  them,  believed  it  to 
be  done  by  a  divine  power.  In  the  earlier  centuries  of  the 
modern  era,  naturalists  were  carefully  observing  the  spe- 
cies, genera,  and  orders,  with  the  view  of  classifying  plants 
and  animals,  and  they  were  fond  of  regarding  kinds  as 
fixed  and  immutable.  Religious  people  were  inclined  to 
regard  all  natural  species  as  created  by  God,  and  this  re- 
quired, when  they  came  to  believe  in  geological  succession, 
a  perpetual  creation  down  to  the  period  at  which  man 
appeared.  Since  the  days  of  Mallet  and  Geoffroy  St. 
Hilaire  there  has  been  an  ever-increasing  body  of  natural- 
ists inclined  to  account  for  the  origin  of  species  by  natural 
law. 

Who  is  to  settle  these  questions,  or  rather  this  question, 
for  it  is  one  ?  This  can  be  done  only  by  long  and  varied 
observation  and  discussion.  I  certainly  feel  as  to  myself 
that  I  cannot  decide  it.  The  tendency  of  modern  specula- 
tion has  all  been  toward  the  prevalence  of  development  by 
natural  causation.  Yet  there  are  phenomena  of  which  it 
may  be  said  that  they  cannot  at  this  present  time  be  ex- 
plained by  any  natural  process.  But  there  is  one  point 
on  which  I  am  quite  as  much  entitled  to  speak  as  any 
other  is  :  Does  religion  require  us  to  insist  that  species  and 
orders  in  natural  science  are  all  fixed  forever  ?  that  in  no 
circumstances  can  a  new  species  be  produced  by  natural  law  ? 

It  is  certainly  conceivable  that  the  God  who  created  all 
things  should  also  have  created  by  a  direct  act,  without  a 
medium  or  without  a  process,  the  first  member  of  every 
one  of  tlie  hundred  thousands  of  plants  and  animals  on  the 
earth,  and  then  allowed,  or,  rather,  enabled,  them  to  go 
down  by  an  evolutionary  heredity.  But  it  is  quite  as  pos- 
sible and  equally  conceivable  that  God  may  have  organized 


HOVr    PRODUCKD.  21 

the  species  out  of  the  previously  existing  materials,  even 
as  he  made  man's  body  out  of  the  dust  of  the  ground.  The 
essential  elements  of  organisms  are  oxygen,  nitrogen,  hy- 
drogen, carbon,  with  sulphur  and  iron,  and  aqueous  fluids. 
These  are  represented  as  being  the  least  volatile  of  the 
elements  and  the  most  permanent  in  their  combination, 
and  because  of  these  qualities  tliey  may  have  been  brought 
and  kept  together  in  organisms.  It  is  quite  conceivable 
that  out  of  the  constituents  of  the  universe  God  may  have 
arranged  that  these  should  combine  to  form  those  aggre- 
gates which  we  call  plants  and  animals,  and  as  the  ages 
run  on,  to  form  new  species  in  rare  and  exceptional  cir- 
cumstances. It  has  to  be  added  that  these  elements  will 
not  of  themselves  form  livhig  beings  without  some  in- 
herent or  superadded  hereditary  vital  power,  a  subject 
which  will  have  to  be  considered  separately.  Xow,  it  is 
not  for  me  to  say  beforehand  wdiich  of  these  methods, 
immediate  or  mediate,  God  should  adopt.  The  former 
of  these  might  seem  to  bring  in  God  more  directly.  It 
certainly  makes  him  interfere  more  frequently  with  the 
W'Orks  of  nature ;  but  then,  when  he  is  thus  interfering, 
he  is  interfering  with  his  own  w^orks,  wdiich  we  may  sup- 
pose to  have  been  planned  from  the  first  in  infinite  wis- 
dom. If  it  be  found  in  fact  that  he  has  chosen  tiie  latter 
method,  we  are  just  as  much  entitled  in  that  case  as  in  the 
other  to  discover  the  action  of  God,  and  we  may  without 
presumption  discover  evidences  of  beneficence.  For  God 
does  thus  secure  not  only  a  connection  of  his  works  with 
himself,  but  a  connection  of  them  one  with  another ;  and 
thus,  on  the  one  hand,  there  is  a  certain  stability  in  natural 
classes,  while,  on  the  other  liand,  there  is  a  sufiicient 
amount  of  variety  and  pi-ogression  to  suit  the  organism  to 
new  positioTis  and  provide  for  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
which  is  certainly  a  good  provision. 


22  THp:orjES  of  development. 

A  number  of  tlieories  have  been  devised  to  account  for 
the  production  of  what  seem  to  be  new  species.  Darwin 
gives  prominence  to  the  principle  of  Natural  Selection, 
wdth  its  accompaniment  the  Survival  of  the  Fittest ;  but 
acknowledges  in  his  later  editions  that  he  had  attached 
too  much  importance  to  it.  The  phrase  is  not  a  very 
happy  one,  as  it  seems  to  imply  choice,  which  certainly 
has  no  place  in  the  process.  But  it  points  to  a  fact  that 
the  weakest  plants  and  animals  are  most  apt  to  die  eai'ly 
and  leave  no  progeny,  whereas  the  strong  live  and  have  a 
more  pow^erful  offspring.  I  do  not  purpose  to  give  all  the 
theories,  or  to  examine  them  critically.  They  differ  chietly 
in  this,  that  some  attach  more  importance  to  the  operation 
of  the  internal  elements,  others  to  the  external  circum- 
stances or  environment.  Some  hold  that  there  is  an  action 
producing  change,  variety,  and  progression  in  the  com- 
ponents and  structure  of  the  organism,  in  the  germ  or  in 
its  growth.  Among  those  who  thus  look  for  the  cause  of 
the  development  in  the  organs  themselves  may  be  men- 
tioned Lyell,  Mivart,  and  Professor  Owen,  in  England ; 
Professor  Gra^j,  and  Professor  Cope  in  America  ;  and,  in 
^Germany,  Braun,  Gegenbaur,  Heer,  Tsageli,  Yirchow, 
etc.*  Most  of  them  seem  to  make  the  development  pro- 
ceed by  gradual  steps,  scarcely  if  at  all  observable ;  others 
through  a  metamorphosis  of  germs  and  hetei'ogenetic 
leaps.  Perhaps  we  may  have  to  take  with  us  both  the 
internal  and  external  causes,  in  some  cases  tlie  one,  and  in 
some  the  other  being  the  stronger.  The  development  of 
the  individual  certainly  involves  both  an  inwai'd  power  of 


'  We  have  an  admirable  work  on  The  Theories  of  Darwin,  by  Ru- 
dolph Schmid,  excellently  translated  by  G.  A.  Zimmermann  (Jansen, 
N   M'Clurg  &  Co.,  Chicago).     Tliis  work  is  at  once  philosophical  and  scien- 
Hific,  and  being  now  so  accessible,  renders  it  unnecessary  for  me  to  state 
and  criticize  the  tlieories  of  evolution. 


THERE   IS    MORE   THAN    PHYSICAL    ENERGY.         23 

growtli,  and  also  external  support  and  nutriment ;  both 
are  necessary  to  produce  tlie  full  form,  and  the  seed 
which  propagates  the  species.  There  may  be  the  same 
principle  in  the  production,  in  rare  circumstances  possibly 
only  in  the  early  geological  ages,  of  new  species.  It  is 
conceivable  that  in  the  earlier  times  aggregates  might  not 
have  been  so  fixed  as  to  render  germs  and  species  absolute- 
ly unchangeable.  They  seem  now  to  be  so  determined 
that  the  species  of  animals  and  plants  are  comparatively 
permanent. 

It  is  always  to  be  remembered  that  in  vegetable  and  in 
animal  development  there  is  more  than  mechanical  en- 
ergy. Mr,  Spencer  can  scarcelj^  be  said  to  have  perceived 
this  ;  certainly  he  has  not  given  it  its  due  place  and  prom- 
inence. There  is  evidently  a  chemical  power  in  exercise, 
and  this  cannot  be  said  to  have  yet  been  resolved  into 
mechanism.  Then  there  is  a  power,  which  without  de- 
fining it,  was  simply  called  vital  by  our  older  naturalists, 
and  which,  however  it  may  have  been  produced,  and 
whatever  may  be  its  natui-e,  is  in  actual  operation  higher 
than  either  the  mechanical  or  chemical.  Even  Darwin  is 
obliged  to  bring  in  a  panzoism  to  account  for  the  genesis 
and  continuance  of  organisms.  Mr.  Spencer  himself  has 
to  use  physiological  units  to  explain  heredity.  What  are 
these  but  particular  exhibitions  of  the  old  vital  forces  ? 

Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  example  of  this  physio- 
logical development  is  to  be  seen  in  the  progress  of  the 
embryo  in  the  womb,  as  discovered  by  Yon  Baer.  The 
germ  is  apparently  (it  cannot  be  so  I'eally)  much  the  same 
in  all  animals  except  the  lowest ;  but  it  becomes  differen- 
tiatea  and  takes  the  form  of  the  polyps,  the  worms,  the 
molluscs,  and  arthropods,  and  goes  on  to  the  fish,  the 
amphibia,  the  reptiles,  to  birds  and  mannnalia.  Xow  this 
progression,  as  every  one  knows,  is  very  much  the  same 


24  WHAT   DEVELOPMENT   CANNOT   DO. 

as  that  of  the  animal  races  in  the  geological  ages.  This 
does  not  imply,  as  I  nnderstand  it,  that  the  germ  of  the 
mammal,  in  its  ascending  process,  ever  does  become  a  bird 
or  a  reptile.  It  means  that  there  are  combinations  of 
agents  in  the  germ  and  its  surroundings,  which  proceed, 
that  is,  are  developed  after  a  certain  manner,  and  that 
from  a  prearranged  combination  of  matters  and  forces 
there  has  been  a  like  or  parallel  progression  in  the  whole 
animal  kingdom.  All  this  implies  more  than  mere  me- 
chanical energy  or  persistence  of  force.  Powers  are  im- 
plied, which,  in  the  present  stage  of  science  cannot  be 
resolved  into  the  mechanical.  Yet  in  no  human  machine 
can  we  discover  more  clearly  the  evidence  of  a  plan  and 
purpose.  With  these  new  powers  acting,  there  is  now  a 
higher  manner  and  form  of  development,  and  we  have 
one  generation  of  intelligent  and  moral  beings  succeeding 
another. 


SECTION  VI. 

WHAT   DEVELOPMENT   CANNOT   DO. 

While  it  can  do  much,  it  may  not  be  able  to  do  every- 
thing. There  is  a  tendency  among  eager  and  hasty  thinkers 
to  push  every  newly  discovered  truth  to  an  extreme.  I  am 
as  old  as  to  remember  the  feeling  kindled  when  Sir  Hum- 
phry Davy  made  his  brilliant  discoveries  as  to  electricity 
and  chemical  action.  There  were  sciolists  in  our  schools 
of  popular  science,  book  critics  in  our  newspapers,  and 
wandering  lecturers  who  hastened  to  make  electricity  ac- 
count for  everything,  for  even  life  and  mind  itself.  This 
scientific  fashion,  never  encouraged  by  the  great  discoverer 
himself,  soon  ran  and  ended  its  course,  and  died  out  in 


CANNOT  ACCOUNT   FOR   ORIGIN.  25 

the  struggle  for  existence  as  other  and  equally  powerful 
agents  catne  into  notice.  Evolution  is  at  present  running 
a  like  course.  The  great  scientific  work  of  the  past  age 
has  been  to  show  what  it  can  do  ;  that  of  the  coming  age 
is  to  lay  a  restraint  upon  its  career,  and  to  show  what  it 
cannot  do.  Like  all  creature  action  it  will  be  found  to 
have  very  stringent  limitations.  We  may  fix  on  some  of 
these. 

I.  It  cannot  give  an  account  of  the  oi'igination  of 
things.  This  is  implied  in  its  nature  and  its  very  name. 
Development  takes  place  among  materials  already  existing. 
Evolution  is  the  derivation  of  one  thing  from  another 
thing.  But  the  mind  does  seek  after  an  origin.  This 
has  been  maintained  by  Aristotle,  and  by  the  profound 
thinkers  of  all  ages.  The  principle  of  causation  insists  on 
going  back  from  effect  to  cause,  and  from  one  cause  to  an- 
other, and  is  not  satisfied  till  it  rests  in  an  originating  sub- 
stance possessed  of  the  power  to  produce  all  that  follow\^. 
Evolution  implies  a  set  of  acting  substances.  So  far  from 
accounting  for  these,  say  body  with  its  attractions  and  af- 
finities, and  mind  with  its  thoughts  and  feeliugs,  it  pre- 
supposes that  these  exist  and  that  they  are  acting.  The 
mind  seems  to  demand  an  account  of  these ;  development 
cannot  furnish  this,  and  has  to  call  in  a  creator  and  organ- 
izer. Evolution  simply  shows  a  fiowing  and  widening 
stream,  ijnplying  a  fountain,  which,  however,  it  conceals  in 
mist. 

II.  It  does  not  originate  the  power  wdiich  works  in  de- 
velopment. That  process  shows  us  objects  acting  causally, 
but  takes  and  gives  no  account  either  of  the  objects  or  the  ^ 
forces  in  them.  To  account  for  them,  Herbert  Spencer 
calls  in  what  he  denominates  the  Persistence  of  Force — a 
phrase  to  which  some  object.  But  call  it  what  you  please, 
force  or  power  or  energy,  or  the  persistence  of  force,  or 


26  WHAT   DEVELOPMENT    CAiX^saT    DO. 

the  conservation  of  energy,  there  is  certainly  such  a  thing, 
not  imaginary  or  hypothetical  bnt  real.  Spencer  thereby 
accounts  for  all  the  action  of  nature.  But  he  is  philoso- 
pher enough  to  know  that  this  implies  something  behind, 
beneath,  or  above  it.  He  is  obliged  to  do  this  by  the 
nature  and  necessity  of  thought.  He  is  constrained  to 
believe  this  because  it  is  impossible  to  conceive  the  oppo- 
site, which,  according  to  him,  is  the  ultimate  test  and 
criterion  of  truth.  I  am  not  disposed  to  put  the  argument 
in  this  form,  but  I  join  him  in  holding  that  we  are  neces- 
sitated to  believe  that  there  is  a  something  beyond  the 
matter  and  force  which  we  notice.  With  him  this  is  un- 
known and  unknowable,  and  he  kindly  and  condescendingly 
makes  this  the  sphere  of  religion.  Yet  he  himself  is  obliged 
to  acknowledge  that  he  knows  something  about  it.  Indeed 
it  is  impossible  for  him  or  any  one  to  speak  about  it,  to 
make  any  predication  of  it,  unless  he  so  far  knows  it.  He 
knows  it  to  be  a  power  and  to  have  power ;  and  surely  this 
is  knowledge,  and  rather  important  knowledge.  He  every- 
where speaks  of  a  necessary  "  belief  in  a  power  of  which  no 
limit  in  time  or  space  can  be  conceived."  This  limitless- 
riess  is  surely  a  farther  knowledge.  He  can  tell  a  great  deal 
about  its  working  by  differentiation  and  integration,  pro- 
ducing happiness  and  virtue,  causing  an  advance,  and  fin- 
ally dissolving  all  things  in  a  universal  conflagration. 
Such  a  thing  is  not  absolutely  unknown.  I  agree  with 
him  in  thinking  that  there  is,  that  there  must  be,  such  a 
power.  But  on  the  same  ground  as  he  argues  that  it  ex- 
ists and  is  a  power,  I  argue  that  we  know  it  to  be  not  only 
a  power  but  a  wise  power,  a  benevolent,  a  righteous  power. 
But  evolution  has  not  produced  this  power,  it  is  the  pro- 
duction of  it. 

III.  Evolution  of   itself  cannot  give  us  the  beneficent 
laws  and  special  ends  w^e  see  in  nature.     There  is  in  force, 


CANNOT   ACCOUNT   FOR   ORDER.  27 

considered  in  itself,  neither  good  nor  evil.  It  is  as  ready 
to  work  destruction  as  to  promote  the  spread  of  happiness. 
The  persistence  of  force  might  be  a  persistence  in  evil. 
The  separate  agencies  being  blind  might  as  readily  produce 
confusion  as  order.  A  railway  train,  without  a  head  or 
hand  to  put  it  on  the  right  track,  might  only  work  havoc. 
In  order  to  operate  beneficently  the  persisting  never-dymg 
force  must  have  collocations,  as  Chalmers  calls  them, 
adaptations  or  adjustments,  as  I  call  them,  to  enable  them 
to  accomplish  the  good  ends  which  are  so  visible. 

These  are  of  two  kinds.  One  is  a  general  order,  or 
what  are  called  laws  of  nature,  such  as  the  seasons  and  the 
periods  of  animal  life.  I  am  inclined  to  see  purposes  in  the 
very  forms  of  animals  and  plants,  and  the  manner  in  which 
they  grow  into  their  type,  while  the  type  ever  advances 
as  if  to  realize  an  idea.  I  discover  an  end  in  the  manner 
in  which  plants  and  animals  are  produced.  Two  arrange- 
ments are  necessary  to  effect  this.  First,  there  is  the  ten- 
dency of  every  living  thing  to  produce  a  seed  or  germ. 
The  powers  necessary  to  accomplish  this  are  very  numer- 
ous and  very  complex,  but  all  conspiring  toward  this  one 
end,  as  if  it  w^ere  one  of  the  purposes  for  which  the  plant 
was  created.  Secondly,  there  is  the  growth  of  the  plant  or 
animal  from  its  embryo.  This,  too,  implies  an  immense 
combination  of  arranged  elements  and  forces.  It  looks 
excessively  like  an  end  contemplated,  an  idea  to  be  real- 
ized. It  looks  all  the  more  like  this  wdien  we  notice  that 
the  seed  or  germ  is  after  its  kind,  and  produces  a  new  life 
of  the  same  type. 

I  have  endeavored  to  show  in  another  work  that  in  our 
world  there  is  not  only  law  and  general  government,  but  a 
particular   providence   accomplishing  special  ends.'     The 

'  Method  of  Divine  Government,  Part  II. 


28  j^^EW   rOWEES   APPEAKIIN'G   IN   THE   AGES. 

laws  produce  general  results,  but  tliey  are  also  made  to 
conspire  and  concur  and  cross  each  other,  so  as  to  produce 
individual  events,  which,  as  far  as  we  know,  follow  no  gen- 
eral law.  This  is  manifest  in  every  part  of  God's  govern- 
ment, but  is  specially  seen  in  God's  dealings  toward  his 
intelligent  and  sensitive  creatures.  "  A  sparrow  cannot 
fall  to  the  ground  w^ithout  him."  Thoughtful  minds  have 
ever  felt  comforted  by  the  thought  that  there  is  a  God 
watching  over  them,  and  ordering  their  lot  from  beginning 
to  end,  sending  health  or  disease  at  the  proper  season, 
^     gratifying  their  wishes  or  thwarting  them,  according  as  may 

^.^  ,-'  be  for  their  best  good.  All  this  may  be  done  by  the  per- 
sistence of  force,  but  it  is  by  a  force  guided  by  intelli- 
gence and  love.  When  man  accomplishes  any  end,  it  is  by 
p^working  on  materials  already  prepared  for  him.  Bat  the 
God  who  created  the  materials  has  also  arranged  them  for 
I     the  accomplishment  of  his  purposes.     There  is  need  of  a 

y  -^\    po^^er  above  evolution  to  account  for  the  beneficence  of 

Y^  \    evolution. 


SECTION  vn. 

NEW    TOWERS    APPEARING    IN   THE    AGES. 

I  HAVE  shown  that  in  ])liysical  causation  there  is  merely 
a  changed  state  of  the  bodies  acting  as  the  causes.  A  and 
B  act  upon  each  other  and  constitute  a  cause,  the  effect 
being  simply  A'  and  B'  in  a  new  state  with  no  new  bodies, 
and  no  added  energy,  the  energy  in  the  two  A  and  B 
being  the  same  as  in  A'  B',  with  a  portion  in  the  one 
transferred  to  the  other.  In  all  such  causation  there  is  no 
energy  in  the  effect  which  w^as  not  in  the  cause.  If  there 
be  a  new  power  appearing  it  must  be  superadded.  But 
new  powers  have  appeared. 


REVEALED   BY    GEOLOGY.  2d 

For  the  purposes  of  mj  exposition,  it  is  not  necessary 
that  I  should  determine  what  are  the  oi'iginal  bodies  or 
powers  in  our  world,  what  is  their  nature,  and  how  many 
they  are.  They  may  be  atoms,  simple  and  indivisible, 
they  may  be  molecules  consisting  of  two  or  more  atoms  i;i 
union.  These  no  doubt  have  all  their  powers  by  which 
they  act. 

Geology  clearly  reveals  that  new  products  have  appeared. 
There  was  a  time  when  there  was  no  organism  and  no  life, 
no  plant  or  animal.  But  at  a  set  time  oi-ganized  matter 
appeared,  say  protoplasm.  When  there  was  no  animated 
being  I  believe  that  there  was  no  sensation,  pleasant  or 
painful,  and  it  certainly  cannot  be  proven  that  there  was 
any  feeling  in  the  protoplasm  or  in  the  plant.  As  ages 
roll  on  we  have  creatures  evidently  feeling  pleasure  and 
liable  to  pain.  Organisms  both  in  the  vegetable  and  ani- 
mal form  rise  higher  and  higher,  and  animals  become 
possessed  of  impulses  which  prompt  them  to  act  in  a  cer- 
tain way.  We  have  now  powers  higher  than  the  mechan- 
ical, we  have  the  vital,  the  sensitive,  and  the  beginning  of 
the  psychical.  Hiickel  divides  the  organic  world  into 
three  kingdoms — the  protista,  the  vegetable,  and  the  ani- 
mal. He  traces  twenty-two  stages  in  the  rise  from  the 
protista  on  to  man,  eight  of  them  belonging  to  the  inver- 
tebrate and  fourteen  to  the  vertebrates.  I  am  not  dis- 
posed to  sanction  this  pedigree  and  every  stage  of  it.  But 
it  is  clear  that  there  is  such  an  advance.  In  the  animal 
kingdom  there  is  first  sensation,  then  instinctive  impulse, 
then  lower  rising  to  higher  forms  of  intelligence,  distin- 
guishing things  that  differ,  conducting  long  processes  of 
reasoning  and  induction,  and  giving  us  glimpses  of  spirit- 
nal  and  eternal  truth.  Finally,  we  have  a  moral  nature 
discerning  between  good  and  evil,  laying  obligations  upon 
us  to  promote  the  happiness,  and  as  higher,  the  moral 


30  NEW    POWERS   APPEARING    IN   THE   AGES. 

good  of  man,  and  pointing  to  a  judgment-daj.  Natural- 
ists may  be  tempted  to  overlook  these  last,  the  higli  ideas 
of  which  we  are  conscious  ;  but  these  are  realities,  are 
facts  revealed  to  the  inner  sense  quite  as  clearly  and  as 
certainly  as  the  visible  and  tangible  molecular  and  molar 
parts,  the  seed,  the  limbs,  the  joints,  the  nerves  and  brain, 
revealed  to  the  external  senses. 

Was  there  Life  in  the  original  atom,  or  molecule  formed 
of  the  atoms  ?  If  not,  how  did  it  come  in  when  the  first 
plant  appeared  ?  Was  there  sensation  in  the  original  mole- 
cule ?  If  not,  what  brought  it  in  when  the  first  animal 
had  a  feeling  of  j^leasure  or  of  pain  ?  Was  there  mind  in 
the  first  molecule,  say  a  power  of  perceiving  an  object  out 
of  itself  ?  Was  there  consciousness  in  the  first  molecule  or 
monad — a  consciousness  of  self  ?  Was  there  a  power  of 
comparing  or  judging,  of  discerning  things,  of  noting  their 
agreements  or  differences?  Had  it  a  power  of  reason- 
ing, of  inferring  the  unseen  from  the  seen,  of  the  future 
from  the  past  ?  Were  there  emotions  in  these  first  exist- 
ences? say  a  hope  of  continued  life  or  a  fear  of  approach- 
ing death  ?  Perhaps  they  had  loving  attachments  to  each 
other,  perhaps  they  had  some  morality,  say  a  sense  of 
justice  in  keeping  their  own  whirl,  and  allowing  to  others 
their  rights  and  their  place  in  this  dance  !  Had  they  will 
at  the  beginning,  and  a  power  of  choosing  between  pleasure 
and  pain,  between  the  evil  and  the  good  ?  Perhaps  they 
had  some  piety,  and  paid  worship  of  the  silent  sort  to 
God! 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  there  is  not  even  the  semblance 
of  a  proof  of  there  being  any  such  capacities  in  the  original 
atoms  or  force-centres.  If  so,  how  did  they  come  in  ? 
Take  one  human  capacity:  how  did  consciousness  come 
in?  Herbert  Spencer,  the  mightiest  of  them,  would  have 
us  believe  that  he  has  answered  the  question,  and  yet  he 


SENSATIOX.  31 

has  simply  avoided  it.  In  his  "  Psychology  "  '  he  is  speak- 
ing of  nerves  for  hundreds  of  pages ;  he  shows  tliat  in 
their  development  there  is  a  succession  of  a  certain  kind  ; 
and  adds  simply  that  "  there  must  arise  a  consciousness^''  ! 
This  is  all  he  condescends  to  say,  bringing  in  no  cause  or 
link  or  connection.  Thus  does  he  slip  over  the  gap — a 
practice  not  unconnnon  with  this  bold  speculator. 

It  is  pertinent  to  ask,  How  did  these  things  come  in  ? 
IIow  did  things  without  sensation  come  to  have  sensation  ? 
things  w^ithout  instinct  to  have  instinct  ?  creatures  without 
memory  to  have  memory  ?  beings  without  intelligence  to 
hav^e  intelligence  ?    mere  sentient  existence  to  know  the    ^ 
distinction  between  good  and  evil  ?  'I  am  sure  that  when    "^ 
these  things  appear,  there  is  sometlnng  not  previously  in 
the  atom  or  molecule.     All  sober  thinkers  of  the  day  ad- 
mit that  there  is  no  evidence  wdiatever  in  experience  or  in 
reason  to  shov^r  that  matter  can  produce  mind  ;  that  me- 
chanical action  can  gender  mental  action ;  that  chemical    - 
action  can  manufacture  consciousness  ;  that  electric  action 
can  reason,  or  organic  structure  rise  to  the  idea  of  the  good 
and  the  holy.     I  argue  according  to  reason  and  experi-  ^ 
ence  that  we  must  call  in  a  power  above  the  original  physical 
forces  to  produce  such  phenomena.    I  may  admit  that  a  body 
may  come  out  of  another  body  by  the  powers  with  which     - 
the  bodies  are  endow^ed  ;  but  I  say  that  a  sensitive,  intelli- 
gent, moral  discerning  soul  cannot  proceed  from  the  ele- 
ments of  matter.     IS^ew  powers  have  undoubtedly  come  in 
when  consciousness  and  understanding  and  will  begin  to 
act.     They  may  come  according  to  laws  not  yet  discovered, 
but  they  are  the  laws  of  the  Supreme  Lawgiver. 

It  will  be  argued  by  some  that  there  must  liave  been  all  \ 
along  in  the  atoms  a  latent  life,  sensation,  consciousness, 

Psychology,  Vol.  I.,  Sec.  179. 


32  NEW   POWERS    APPEARIXG   IN   THE   AGES. 

and  mind,  with  beneficence  and  capacity  of  choice,  ready 
to  be  dev^eloped  in  the  ceons,  some  in  thousands  and  some 
in  millions  of  years.  Those  who  deny  that  any  new  pow- 
ers have  appeared  must  resort  to  some  such  supposition. 
It  may  be  allowed  that  this  is  a  thing  imaginable  and  pos- 
sible, but  there  is  not  the  semblance  of  a  proof  in  its  favor. 
Certainly  there  is  no  evidence  that  sentient  beings  could 
have  passed  through  the  intolerable  heat  of  the  star-dust 
from  which  our  former  worlds  are  supposed  to  have  come. 
Even  if  we  should  discover  proof  of  this,  we  should,  in  the 
very  fact,  have  proof  of  design  in  the  way  in  which  these 
latent  powers  have  come  forth  at  the  appropriate  times, 
and  continued  ever  afterw^ard  to  operate  in  organized 
plants,  in  sentient  animals,  and  in  intelligent  man.  AVe 
have  to  choose  our  horn.  If  all  the  endowments  now  in 
our  world  were  in  primary  molecules  ready  to  come  forth 
at  the  fit  time,  it  is  clear  that  they  must  have  been  the 
creature  of  an  intelligence  of  inconceivable  power.  If 
they  were  not  there,  it  is  necessary  to  call  in  a  subsequent 
creation,  or  at  least  some  forthputting  of  Omnipotence. 

Another  supposition  may  be  resorted  to,  somewhat  more 
plausible,  but  still  without  any  positive  evidence.  In 
water  there  are  properties  which  do  not  appear  in  the  ele- 
ments oxygen  and  hydrogen.  In  organized  matter  there 
are  powers  wdiich  cannot  be  discovered  in  the  components. 
It  may  be  argued  that  in  like  manner  at  the  appearances 
of  new  products  there  were  conjunctions  which  produced 
life  and  feeling,  consciousness  and  memory,  intelligence 
aTid  love.  It  may  be  safely  said  that  proof  is  as  much 
wanting  here  as  in  the  other  supposition.  A  necessity  of 
thought  founded  on  experience  does  indeed  imply  that 
there  must  be  some  extraordinary  power  called  in  to  ac- 
count for  the  extraordinary  result  which  is  beyond  the 
potency  of  the  common  mundane  agencies.     But  what  this 


THE   SCRIPTURAL   ACCOUNT.  33 

power  is  we  have  really  no  means  of  knowing.  It  is  cer- 
tain that  the  power  which  has  provided  intelligence  and 
conscience  cannot  be  the  ordinary  mechanical  or  the  chemi- 
cal, or  even  the  vital  powers.  These  new  powers  imply,  if 
not  a  creation,  at  least  a  providence. 

The  objects  we  are  now  looking  at  lie  on  the  horizon 
of  our  vision  and  appear  dim.  We  are  constrained  to  call 
in  a  power  to  produce  the  effects,  but  whether  it  is  to  be 
regarded  as  natural  or  supernatural,  we  may  not  be  able  to 
say.  God  is  w^orking,  but  whether  without  or  with  sec- 
ondary instrumentality  we  cannot  determine.  AYe  may 
have  come  to  a  region  where  the  difference  between  nat- 
ural and  supernatural  disappears.  We  may  have  remarked 
that  the  Scriptures  never  mention  such  a  distinction  ;  they 
ascribe  all  to  the  will  of  God.  The  distinction  may  have 
an  importance  only  in  this  lower  and  mundane  sphere  where 
w^e  have  worlds,  but  no  experience  of  the  ci-eation  of 
w^orlds.'  Paith  and  science  may  both  be  satisfied  with  our 
ascribing  the  whole  process  to  a  Divine  Power,  without 
dogmatizing  as  to  how  it  has  been  acting.!/  -  " 

Have  we  not,  after  all,  the  most  satisfactory  account  of 
the  process  in  the  opening  of  our  Scriptures  ?  There  is 
certainly  a  wonderful  correspondence  or  parallelism  be- 
tween Genesis  and  geology,  between  the  written  record 
and  the  record  in  stone.  We  are  to  be  on  our  guard  in- 
deed against  straining  either  one  or  other  to  bring  them 
into  accordance.  The  general  agreement  of  the  two  is  as 
obvious  as  it  is  wonderful.  The  only  diiference  is  that  tlie\ 
one  record  is  sensible,  while  the  other  is  scientific.  The 
one  is  the  account  of  the  scene  as  it  would  have  appeared 
to  a  spectator  then  living  ;  the  other  is  the  conclusion 
drawn  from  careful  exploration. 

That  there  is  an  accordance  between  the  Scriptures  and 
science  has  been  shown  by  the  three  men  on  this  continent 


A^ 


34  NEW   POWERS   APPEARING   IN   THE   AGES. 


who  are  most  entitled  to  speak  on  the  scientific  question : 
Professor  Dana,  of  Yale ;  Professor  Dawson,  of  Montreal ; 
and  Dr.  Gujot,  of  Princeton.  Both  testimonies  give  the 
same  general  account  of  the  progression  and  of  the  order 
in  which  the  powers  appear.  "  llowbeit  that  was  not  first 
which  is  spiritual  (iruevfjuarLKov),  but  that  which  is  natural 
(yjruxi'fcov),  and  afterward  that  which  is  spiritual."  "And  so 
it  is  written  the  first  man  was  made  a  livino^  soul :  the 
second  Adam  was  made  a  quickening  spirit "  (1  Cor.  xv.  44- 
46),  where  we  may  mark  the  advancement  from  the  merely 
living  soul  {-^v^^v  ^coaav)  to  the  quickening  spirit  {irvev}jLa 

^COOTTOiOVv). 

More  particularly  the  book  of  Genesis  represents  the 
work  as  proceeding  by  days,  which  in  every  part  of  Scrip- 
ture is  employed  to  denote  epochs  ;  thus  in  chap.  ii.  4,  it  is 
said,  "  In  the  day  that  the  Lord  God  made  the  earth  and 
the  heavens."  Eegarding  the  days  as  epochs,  there  is  a 
very  remarkable  parallelism  between  the  order  in  Genesis 
and  the  order  in  geology,  quite  as  much  so  as  that  between 
the  stages  in  embryology  and  that  in  paleontology  pointed 
out  by  Yon  Baer.'  In  the  beginning  or  origin  (eV  a/0%/7) 
God  created  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  and  gave  the  original 
constituents  their  potencies  which  began  to  act.  The  earth 
was  at  first  without  form  and  void,  with  only  the  materials, 
or  star  dust,  as  Laplace's  theory  requires,  the  homogeneous 
state  of  Spencer.  When  the  differentiation  or  evolution 
began  there  was  in  the  first  day  light,  as  we  might  expect. 
In  the  second  day  came  the  expanse,  that  is,  the  sinking 

'  Mr.  G.  Romanes  declares  "  that  the  order  in  which  the  flora  and 
fauna  are  said  by  the  Mosaic  account  to  have  appeared  upon  the  earth 
corresponds  with  that  which  tlie  theory  of  evolution  requires  and  the 
evidence  of  geology  proves  "  (Nature,  August,  1881).  Elsewhere  he  re- 
fers this  to  "traditional  history."  But  there  can  be  no  traditional  his- 
tory of  the  production  of  plants  and  animals. 


THE    SCKIPTUliAL    ACCOUTs^T.  35 

of  the  more  solid  materials  and  the  elevation  of  the  more 
ethereal.  On  the  third  day  there  was  the  separation  of  land 
and  water,  and  plants  were  produced.  On  the  fourth  day  the 
sun  and  moon  appeared  as  distinct  bodies,  in  accordance 
with  the  theory  of  Laplace.  On  the  fifth  day  animals  are 
brought  forth — the  lower  creatures,  tannim  or  swarmers, 
then  fishes  and  fowls.  On  the  sixth  day  the  higher  animals, 
reptiles  and  cattle,  and  as  the  crown  of  the  whole,  man, 
with  qualities  higher  than  all  the  other  creatures,  making 
him  like  unto  God. 

There  are  two  accounts  of  the  creation  of  man.  One  is 
in  Genesis,  chap.  i.  26.  There  is  council  and  decision  :  "  Let 
us  make  man  in  our  image."  This  applies  to  his  soul  or 
higher  nature.  The  other  account  is  in  chap.  ii.  7  :  "  And 
the  Lord  God  formed  man  of  the  dust  of  the  ground,  and 
breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life  ;  and  man  be- 
came a  living  soul."  This  is  man's  organic  body.  We  have 
a  supplement  to  this,  Psalm  cxxxix.  15,  16:  "My  sub- 
stance was  not  hid  froin  thee,  when  I  was  made  in  secret, 
and  curiously  wrought  in  the  lowest  parts  of  the  earth. 
Thine  eyes  did  see  my  substance,  being  yet  unperfect ;  and 
in  thy  book  all  my  members  were  written,  which  in  con- 
tinuance were  fashioned,  when  as  yet  there  was  none  of 
them."  Tliis  passage  used  to  be  quoted  by  Agassiz.  This 
is  my  creed  as  to  man's  bodily  organism.  I  so  far  under- 
stand what  is  said.  Man  is  made  of  the  earth.  There  is 
a  curious  preparatory  process  hinted  at ;  a  process  and  a 
progression  going  on  I  know  not  how  long,  and  all  is  the 
work  of  God,  and  written  in  God's  book.  I  understand 
this,  and  yet  I  do  not  understand  it.  Socrates  said  of  the 
philosophy  of  Ileraclitus  that  what  he  understood  was  so 
good  that  he  was  sure  the  rest  would  also  be  good  if  he 
understood  it.  So  I  say  of  this  passage.  I  so  far  under- 
stand it,  and  get  glorious  glimpses  of  a  divinely  ordained 


36        THE  XEW  POWERS  WORKING  WITH  THE  OLD. 

process,  and  jet  I  do  not  understand  it,  for  it  carries  me 
into  the  secret  things  wliich  belong  unto  tlie  Lord  our  God. 

IP  I  affirm  with  confidence  tliat  there  is  not,  in  geological  or 
biological  science,  any  truth  even  apparently  inconsistent 
witli  his  statement. 

^^<'  I  cannot  saj  how  man's  body  was  formed.  BlU  the 
Scriptures  evidently  speak  truly  when  they  declare  that 
it  was  formed  out  of  previously  existing  materials — out 
of  the  dust  of  the  ground.  They  also  declare  that  God 
"  breathed  into  his  nostrils  the  breath  of  life,  and  he  be- 
came a  living  soul."  As  to  his  higher  nature,  it  is  said 
that  he  was  made  after  the  image  of  God.  This  must 
mean  in  knowledi^^e  of  truth  and  in  holiness.  He  cannot 
know  all  truth,  but  he  knows  of  certain  propositions,  scien- 
tific and  practical,  that  they  are  and  must  be  true.  He 
knows  and  appreciates  the  good  and  distinguishes  between 
good  and  evil.  This  he  does  by  the  conscience,  an  essen- 
tial part  of  his  nature,  represented  by  the  tree  of  knowl- 
edge of  good  and  evil.  Both  these  qualities  raise  him 
high  above  the  brutes,  who  have  some  discernment  of 
tilings  that  differ,  and  a  fear  of  pain  and  punishment,  but 
have  no  idea  of  necessary  truth  or  of  the  beauty  of  moral 
excellence.  In  all  this  there  is  a  new  power  not  produced 
by  mechanical  or  animal  agency. 


SECTION  Ylll. 

THE    NEW    POWEKS    WOKKING    WITT!    THE    OLD. 

"We  have  seen  that  in  the  ages  new  powers  are  intro- 
duced— powers  of  life,  feeling,  and  intelligence — whether 
by  natui-al  or  supernatural  causes  we  may  not  be  al)le  to 
determine,  because  the  operation  takes  place  in  a  region 


INTERACTIOIT   OF   POWERS.  37 

where  it  is  difficult  to  say  what  is  creative  and  what  is 
creature  action  ;  what  is  done  by  instnunents  and  wliat 
without  instruments — like  the  oiiginal  creation  out  of 
nothing.  When  these  new  powers  come  they  act  upon, 
and  they  act  with,  the  previously  existing  powers.  The 
seed  of  the  plant  falls  into  the  soil  already  formed,  and 
works  in  it  and  with  it.  The  sentient  power,  when  ani- 
mals appear,  acts  along  with  the  mechanical  energy  in  the 
bodily  frame.  It  is  the  same  when  higher  intelligence  is 
introduced  into  animalism.  The  senses  still  work  and 
supply  information,  which  is  received  and  formed  into 
shape  by  the  intellect.  When  the  moral  power  begins  to 
act  it  does  not  supersede  the  understanding,  which  tells  us 
what  things  are,  and  upon  this  representation  the  conscience 
proceeds.  These  superadded  powers  seem  to  me  to  be  all 
very  much  of  the  nature  of  seeds.  They  continue,  and 
there  is  reciprocal  action  between  them  and  their  environ- 
ment. They  have  life  in  them  and  they  germinate  and 
grow,  influencing  their  surroundings  ;  and  being  swayed 
by  them  we  have  joint  results  which  could  not  have  been 
produced  by  either  agent,  and  a  development  with  vastly 
more  varied  potencies  and  of  a  more  marked  character, 
the  ne^v  powers  mixing  with  the  old  in  the  offspring,  as 
they  do  in  the  parents.  When  the  plant  appears  there  is 
an  interaction  of  the  organic  and  inorganic  poAvers,  and  we 
have  development,  in  ^vhich  both  are  combined,  the  growth 
of  the  plant  and  in  due  time  its  decay  and  dissolution,  but 
with  a  seed  left  behind.  When  animals  with  sensation 
and  will  come  forth  we  have  now  a  more  complex  aggre- 
gate, still  terminating  in  death,  but  with  a  new  life  in  the 
offspring.  The  organic  as  the  higher  uses  the  inorganic 
powers  and  turns  them  to  its  own  uses.  When  mind  in- 
terposes it  acts  harmoniously  with  matter,  and  the  soul 
and  body  act  and  interact,  only  the  mind  as  the  higher 


38        THE  NE\y  POWERS  WORKING  WITH  THE  OLD. 

subordinates  the  other.  There  is  like  joint  and  reciprocal 
agency  as  the  mental  powers  rise  higher  and  higher.  The 
memory  proceeds  on  the  information  given  by  the  senses, 
and  the  understanding  with  its  judgments  and  reasonings, 
and  the  conscience  with  its  moral  discernment  and  senti- 
ments, presuppose  and  proceed  upon  both  the  senses  and 
memory.  The  development  now  goes  on  under  the  new 
powers,  but  using  all  the  old  powers,  and  therefore  with 
accumulated  momentum.  What  is  gained  by  any  species 
goes  down  to  the  generation  following.^ 

As  one  of  the  issues  the  operations  of  nature  are  apt  to 
go  on  in  epochs,  eras,  or  cycles.  The  organized  causations 
pass  through  time  like  stage-coaches  or  omnibuses,  which 
take  in  and  give  out  passengers  on  to  their  journey's  end. 
Thus,  in  animal  life  we  have  infancy,  childhood,  mature 
age,  declining  life,  old  age,  and  death.  We  have  epochs  in 
history,  times  in  which  there  is  a  strong  disposition  to 
emigrate  and  form  colonies,  as  when  the  Greeks,  in  the 
sixth  century  before  Christ,  spread  themselves  over  many 
countries.  We  have  seasons  when  the  cry  is  for  war  among 
large  bodies  of  people,  ending  perhaps  in  a  demand  for 
peace  when  the  evils  of  war  have  been  felt,  and  this 
continuing  till  it  is  needful  to  defend  rights  which  are  being 
trampled  on.  We  have  fashions  not  only  in  dress  and 
in  modes  of  social  life,  but  in  literature — the  Byronic  pe- 

'  Prof.  Cope  has  remarked  (American  Naturalist,  April,  1880)  that  the 
psychical  powers  modify  and  strengthen  development.  "In  living 
things  the  powers  display  design,  having  direct  reference  to  conscious- 
ness, to  the  satisfaction  of  pleasure  and  the  avoidance  of  pains.  Mind 
also  controls  structure  :  the  evolution  of  mind  has  a  corresponding  effect 
on  organism,  a  view  which  is  confirmed  by  palaeontology.  The  mind 
producing  struggles  of  animals  has  led  to  machines  for  grinding,  cut- 
ting, seizing,  digging ;  for  running,  swimming,  and  flying.  Man  being  de- 
fective as  to  these  instruments,  has  been  compelled  to  exercise  caution 
and  reflection,  and  has  become  restricted  to  peculiar  modes  of  life." 


SPIRITUAL   POWERS.  39 

riod  or  the  Diclvens  period ;  and  in  art — the  llaphaelites 
and  pre-Raphaelites ;  in  all  of  which,  be  it  observed,  there 
13  a  prevailing  taste  which  continues  for  years.  You 
could  often  tell  at  what  age  a  book  was  written  or  an  edi- 
fice built  simply  by  inspecting  its  style  and  expression. 

While  there  is  an  occasional  degradation  by  reason  of 
the  want  of  fitting  in  the  environment  to  the  new  life, 
there  is  upon  the  whole  a  progression.  This  arises  mainly 
from  the  continuance  of  the  new  and  higher  powers  in- 
troduced— say  life,  or  intelligence,  or  conscience.  These 
abide  and  go  down  by  heredity,  and  as  they  act  draw  in, 
influence,  and  use  the  surroundings  to  produce  new  or 
higher  aggregates.  There  results  an  advance  upon  the 
whole  in  the  vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms,  in  the  soil, 
and  it  may  be  the  climate.  The  progression  is  especially 
seen  in  man,  with  his  intelligence  and  moral  nature,  which 
in  spite  of  errors  and  sins,  leads  on  to  the  employment  for 
endi~ormany  and  varied  powers,  and  these  of  a  higher 
order.  These  ends  are  specially  secured  by  the  founding 
of  hospitals  for  the  diseased  and  the  weak,  and,  above  all, 
by  the  founding  of  schools  and  colleges  for  the  cultivation 
and  refining  of  man's  higher  nature  ;  and  the  improve- 
ments go  down  by  heredity  from  one  age  to  another,  when 
they  raise  up  still  nobler  products. 


SECTION  IX. 

SPIRITUAL    POWERS. 


We  have  seen  that  there  is  an  advance  in  the  powers 
working  in  our  world  from  the  inanimate  on  to  the  or- 
ganic, the  sentient,  the  instinctive,  the  conscious,  the 
intelligent,  and  the  moral.    I  have  sometimes  thought  that 


40  SPIRITUAL   POWERS. 

in  nature  itself  I  can  discover  anticipations  (I  would  al- 
most call  them  predictions)  of  something  higher  to  come. 
Agassiz  was  fond  of  finding  prophecies  of  man's  noble  form 
in  the  frames  of  the  lower  animals.  He  erred,  so  I  think, 
in  not  allowing  suflTicient  influence  to  development.  Pro- 
fessor Owen,  too,  was  disposed  to  believe  that  the  forms 
of  the  lower  creatures  pointed  on  to  man  as  the  archetype. 
Some  of  the  views  of  tliese  great  thinkers  as  well  as 
great  comparative  anatomists,  may  be  somewhat  anti- 
quated, or  at  least  reckoned  so  by  our  extreme  evolution- 
ists. But  evolution,  properly  understood,  does  not  even 
tend  to  set  aside  those  ideals  which  our  greatest  natural- 
ists have  seen,  and  been  elevated  as  they  looked  on  them. 
But  it  may  be  doubted  whether  the  natural  man,  the  mere 
animal  man,  is  the  true  ideal ;  say  the  selfish  man,  the 
lustful  man,  the  deceitful  man,  the  vindictive  man.  Every 
man  is  in  a  sense  a  moral  man ;  he  is  possessed  of  a  con- 
science discerning  between  good  and  evil,  "  accusing  or 
else  excusing."  But  our  moral  nature  denounces  much 
that  we  do,  and  claims  to  do  so  in  the  name  and  by  the 
authority  of  God.  Under  this  God  we  look  for  a  rectifi- 
cation. This  cannot  be  had  in  the  conscience,  which  only 
condemns.  Our  moral  nature  points  to  a  law  of  love,  but 
shows  no  way  of  reaching  it.  In  these  circumstances  we 
should  not  be  indisposed  to  look  round  and  inquire 
whether  God,  in  following  out  liis  plan,  may  not  super- 
add, as  ho  has  ever  been  superadding — some  remedial 
measure,  by  which  his  own  Idea  (using  the  phrase  in  the 
Platonic  sense)  may  be  accomplished  and  realized. 

The  Scriptures  announce  clearly  and  emphatically^  that 
there  has  been  an  interposition  and  addition,  and  this  not 
inconsistent  with  the  original  plan,  but  i-ather  cari-ying  it 
out.  There  is  a  new  dispensation  going  beyond  the  old 
and  animal  ones,   beyond  even  the  intellectual  and  the 


THE   NATUEAL   AND    SPIRITUAL.  41 

moral  into  the  spiritual.  God,  who  created  man  in  his 
own  image,  has  a  means  of  restoring  that  image  when  it 
was  lost.  We  are  privileged  to  live  under  the  dispensa- 
tion of  the  Spirit.  There  were  anticipations  of  his  work 
under  the  Old  Testament,  in  his  woi-king  on  individuals 
to  convert  and  sanctify  them.  Still  such  operations  were 
only  partial  and  anticipatory.  "  For  the  Holy  Ghost  was 
not  given,  because  Jesus  was  not  yet  glorified."  But  Jesus 
when  on  earth  spake  of  the  Spirit,  which  they  that  be- 
lieve on  him  should  receive.  When  he  had  finished  his 
work  of  atonement  for  sin,  and  was  taken  up  into  heaven, 
the  disciples  waited  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  prom- 
ise, which  was  fulfilled  when  the  day  of  Pentecost  was  fully 
come,  and  the  Spirit  was  poured  out  from  on  high.  This 
Power  continues  to  work  in  the  church,  and  will  extend 
its  influence  till  the  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  poured  on  all 
flesh. 

Development  now  goes  on  under  two  potencies,  the 
natural  and  the  spiritual.  There  are  the  old  powers  still 
M^orking — those  of  sense  and  understanding,  of  reason  and 
of  conscience.  These  constitute  the  life  which  God  breathed 
into  man  when  he  became  a  living  soul.  They  compose 
the  higher  reason  made  after  the  likeness  of  God,  which 
sin  has  defaced,  but  which  is  deep  down  in  our  nature  be- 
neath tlie  incrustations  covering  it  from  tlie  sight,  but 
which  is  capable  of  being  restored.  Upon  these  the  new 
and  spiritual  powers  work.  Much  that  takes  place  is  the 
joint  result  of  the  two.  The  inspiration  of  Moses,  of  the 
prophets  and  apostles,  did  not  destroy  their  natural  char- 
acter, it  only  sanctified  and  elevated  them.  The  spirits  of 
the  prophets  were  subject  unto  them.  Religion  does  not 
eradicate  the  natural  powers,  it  moulds  and  directs  them 
to  higher  ends.  The  man's  faculties  and  his  temperament 
are  not  changed  by  his  becoming  pious ;  if  he  was  lively 


42  SPIRITUAL   POWERS. 

before  lie  will  be  lively  still,  if  lie  was  dull  and  solid  he 
"will  continue  so. 

It  should  be  noticed,  however,  that  as  the  new  powers 
come  in  there  may  be  opposition  offered  by  the  old  powers, 
and  a  contest  ensues.  Science  tells  us  that  in  the  animal 
ages  there  was  "  a  struggle  for  existence  and  the  survival 
of  the  fittest.-'  There  is  a  like  struggle  in  the  human 
period  between  the  evil  and  the  good.  Some  of  our  old  the- 
ologians held  that  death  was  introduced  among  the  lower 
animals  by  the  sin  of  Adam.  There  is  no  such  statement 
in  the  Scriptures,  and  geology  shows  that  death  has  reigned 
all  along  in  the  animal  kingdom.  But  there  is  a  unity  in 
our  world  in  this  respect  as  in  others,  that  there  has  been 
a  contest  in  all  ages.  In  this  world  the  seed  of  the  ser- 
pent contends  with  the  seed  of  the  woman,  and  in  the 
heart  ''  the  flesh  lusteth  against  the  spirit,  and  the  spirit 
against  the  flesh."  "The  whole  creation  groaneth  and 
travaileth  together  until  now,"  but  in  the  hope  that  the 
higher  will  conquer  the  lower,  and  that  "  the  creation 
itself  shall  be  delivered  from  the  bondage  of  corruption 
into  the  glorious  liberty  of  the  children  of  God"  (Rom. 
viii.  19). 

The  development  goes  on  in  eras  or  epochs  like  the  ages 
of  geology,  like  the  days  of  Genesis.  The  patriarchal  dis- 
pensation grows  out  of  the  antediluvian,  the  Jewish  out 
of  the  patriarchal,  the  Christian  out  of  the  Jewish.  We 
may  discover  marked  epochs  even  in  the  Christian  church  : 
the  time  of  the  fathers — a  time  of  establishing  ;  the  med- 
i^e-val  church — preserving  like  the  winter  the  seeds  depos- 
ited ;  the  Reformation — bursting  forth  like  the  spring ;  the 
denominational  churches — discussing  doctrines  and  settling 
creeds  ;  the  missionary  cliurches — carrying  the  truth  to  all 
lands,  and  about  to  expand  into  the  millennial  church. 

Upon  the  whole,  there  is  progression  in  the  spiritual  as 


JOI^^ED    WITH   THE    NATUIIAL.  43 

in  the  natural  kingdom.  Indeed  many  interesting  corre- 
spondences may  be  traced  between  the  two  kingdoms.  In 
both  there  are  old  powers  and  new  working  together  and 
leading  on  to  higher  and  higher  products.  The  kingdom 
of  heaven  is  like  unto  leaven,  which  a  woman  took  and  hid 
in  three  measures  of  meal,  and  which  ferments  there  till 
the  whole  is  leavened.  It  is  a  seed  becoming  a  plant ; 
there  is  first  the  blade,  then  the  ear,  and  then  the  f  nil  corn 
in  the  ear. 

There  is  a  development  in  the  revelation  of  truth.  First 
there  is  the  shadow  and  then  the  substance,  there  ai-e  first 
types  and  then  the  archetype.  There  are  promises  and 
then  performances,  predictions  and  then  fulfilments.  We 
know  little  of  antediluvian  times,  but  evidently  there  was 
then  a  light  like  that  of  the  dawn.  There  were  prefigur- 
ations  in  the  LeVitical  institutions  made  after  the  pattern 
shown  in  the  mount.  There  is  higher  ethical  teaching  in 
the  :N'ew  Testament  than  in  the  Old.  The  discourses  of 
our  Lord,  who  is  the  light  of  the  world,  shed  a  brighter 
light  than  had  shone  before,  Greek  or  Jewish.  There  is 
the  fullest  revelation  of  doctrinal  truth  in  the  Epistles  of 
Paul,  of  Peter,  and  of  John. 

We  may  discover  this  conjunction  of  powers  in  the  writ- 
ing of  the  Scriptures.  Moses  spefiks,  and  David  speaks, 
and  Isaiah  speaks,  and  Paul  speaks,  and  John  speaks ;  and 
we  discover  the  natural  temperament  of  each,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  the  age  and  circnmstances  in  which  they  lived. 
But  God  too  speaks :  "  Thus  saith  the  Lord."  All  this  is 
in  analogy  with  God's  mode  of  procedure.  The  "  higher 
criticism,"  as  it  is  called,  may  look  at  and  search  and  even 
find  fault  with  the  human  element,  but  let  it  beware  of 
meddling  with  the  Divine  element.  If  it  does  so  it  will 
be  seen  in  the  end  only  to  show  its  weakness  and  fallibility, 
by,  it  may  be,  castmg  out,  though  the  critic  may  not  see  it, 


44 


SPIRITUAL   POWERS. 


; 


sometliing  fitted  to  accomplish  a  good  end.  "  All  Scrip- 
ture is  given  bj  inspiration  of  God,  and  is  profitable  for 
doctrine,  for  reproof,  for  correction,  for  instruction  in 
righteousness,  that  the  man  of  God  may  be  perfect,  thor- 
oughly furnished  unto  all  good  works"  (2  Tim.  iii.  16). 

Under  this  double  influence  the  Christian  grows.  He 
"  adds  to  his  faith  virtue  ;  and  to  virtue  knowledge ;  and  to 
knowledge  temperance  ;  and  to  temperance  patience  ;  and 
to  patience  godliness ;  and  to  godliness  brotherly  kindness ; 
and  to  brotherly  kindness  charity."  Xot  that  he  is  every 
instant  advancing,  but  he  is,  upon  the  whole,  progressing. 
He  may  have  his  periods  of  declension,  but  he  rises  above 
them.  He  is  like  a  man  ascending  a  high  mountain;  as  he 
mounts  up  he  may  have  to  cross  valleys  deep  and  dark, 
but,  upon  the  whole,  he  is  rising  higher  and  higher.  The 
Christian  dies  like  Samson,  amid  the  glories  of  his  strength, 
and  slays  in  his  death  the  last  of  his  spiritual  enemies. 
The  church,  too,  extends.  It  is  ever  spreading  into  new 
countries,  and  it  gives  evidence  that  it  will  at  last  subdue 
all  lands.  Wherever  it  goes  it  carries  with  it  innumerable 
blessings,  hi  the  lessening  of  human  suffering,  in  improved 
legislation,  in  the  promotion  of  education— lower  and 
higher — and  generally  in  the  elevation  of  the  race  in 
knowledge  and  character. 

Here  it  is  interesting  to  notice  the  unity  of  the  devel- 
oped and  developing  history  of  our  world.  It  does  not 
take  at  first  the  form  of  a  perfected  world,  but  of  a  world 
going  on  toward  perfection.  It  is  not  optimist,  as  Leibnitz 
painted  it,  but  it  is  to  become  optimist.  It  has  evil  in  it ; 
but  it  is  not  pessimist,  as  Schopenhauer  and  von  Hartmann 
represent  it,  going  to  the  other  extreme.  As  it  is  now 
going  on  it  is  a  scene  of  contests,  with  defeats  and  victor- 
ies through  all  its  past  history.  It  is  a  scene  of  contest 
from  the  beginning,  of  warring  elements,  of  creatures  suf- 


ACCESS   TO   GOD.  45 

feringwho  had  not  sinned  "after  the  similitude  of  Adam's 
transgression."  There  is  in  it  at  this  moment  a  contest 
between  the  evil  and  the  good,  like  that  between  winter 
and  spring,  in  which  the  spring,  led  on  by  the  sun  in  the 
heavens,  shall  certainly  prevail. 

It  is  the  most  blessed  of  our  privileges  in  thi^  dispensa- 
tion that  every  one  who  believes  has  access  to  God.  There 
is  a  sense,  indeed,  in  which  God  makes  himself  known  to 
all  his  intelligent  creatures,  and  "  lighteth  every  man  that 
cometh  into  the  world."  He  does  so  in  his  ordinary  provi- 
dence, in  which  he  brings  events  to  pass  according  to  causes 
which  he  has  instituted,  and  in  which  he  acts  quite  as  cer- 
tainly as/lFhe  produced  everything  without  subordinate 
agency.  [  But  earnest  minds  have  never  been  satisfied  with 
such  distant  views  of  God  as  are  given  by  causation  and 
consequent  evolution.  They  aspire  after  and  long  for  im- 
mediate intercourse  with  God.  They  pray  in  the  belief 
that  there  is  one  to  hear  them,  and  they  expect  an  answer. 
They  will  not  allow  themselves  or  others  to  think  that  God 
has  so  shut  himself  out  from  his  own  world  that  he  cannot 
act  in  it  and  on  it.  They  deny  that  our  petitions  are  so 
bound  to  the  earth  by  gravity  that  they  camiot  mount 
upward  and  reach  the  ear  and  the  heart  of  our  Heavenly 
Father  w^ho  is  felt  as  pitying  them.  They  believe  that 
their  spirits  can  hold  communion  with  God,  who  is  a  spirit, 
quite  as  certainly  as  our  earth  can  act  on  the  sun,  and  the 
sun  on  the  earth.  They  have  faith  that  there  are  wider 
and  closer  unions  than  the  attraction  of  matter  to  matter. 
They  are  sure  that  all  holy  intelligences  throughout  the 
universe  are  in  union  with  the  holy  God.  Sure  as  we  speak 
to  God  in  faith  God  hears  us.  He  speaks  if  we  will  but 
hear.  "Truly  our  fellowship  is  with  the  Father,  and  with 
his  Son  Jesus  Christ." 

From  this  double  powei*,  natural  and  spiritual,  arises  the 


46  SPIRITUAL   POWERS. 

difference  in  Christian  experience  and  character.  People 
have  different  natural  inclinations,  and  are  beset  by  differ- 
ent sins  and  temptations,  and  he  suits  his  manifestation  to 
their  diversities.  No  Christian  should  insist  that  the  work 
of  God  should  be  the  same  in  the  heart  of  every  other  as 
in  his  own.  Xor  should  any  one  doubt  of  the  reality  of  a 
spiritual  work  in  himself  because  his  experience  is  not  the 
same  as  that  of  some  others  of  whom  he  has  read,  or  who 
may  have  opened  up  their  feelings  to  him.  Just  as  there 
is  a  diversity  in  the  works  of  nature,  in  the  color  and  form 
of  plants  and  animals  peopling  the  earth  and  ocean  ;  just  as 
there  is  a  variety  in  the  shape  and  countenance  of  the  bod- 
ily frames  of  men  ;  just  as  one  star  diff'ereth  from  another, 
so  Christians,  while  after  one  model,  are  made  to  take  differ- 
ent types  and  hues  of  beauty  on  earth,  and  shall  thus  with 
their  individualities  be  transplanted  into  heaven  to  adorn 
the  paradise  of  God,  and  shine  as  stars  in  the  iirmament  in 
heaven.  In  heaven  the  foundations  of  the  wall  of  the  city 
are  garnished  with  all  manner  of  precious  stones,  and  the 
tree  of  life  in  the  midst  of  the  garden  bears  "  twelve  man- 
ner of  fruits,"  so  the  saints  will  there  have  each  his  own 
character ;  and  the  song  which  ascends  will  be  a  concert  of 
diverse  voices,  each  melodious,  but  each  in  its  diversity  join- 
ing with  the  others  to  make  the  harmony.  Each  in  his 
own  way  will  join  in  singing  "  the  song  of  Moses  and  the 
Lamb." 


SECTION  X. 


It  is  of  no  use  denying  in  onr  day  the  doctrine  of  evo- 
lution in  the  name  of  religion,  or  any  other  good  cause. 
An  age  or  two  ago  many  religious  people  were  afraid  of 
geology.  It  can  now  be  shown  that  it  rather  favors  religion 
by  its  furnishing  proofs  of  design,  and  by  tlie  wonderful 
parallelism  between  Genesis  and  geology.  The  time  is  at 
hand  when  all  intelligent  people,  religious  and  irreligious, 
will  perceive  that  there  is  nothing  impious  in  development 
considered  in  itself ;  though  it  may  be  carried  to  excess 
and  turned  to  atheistic  purposes.  The  business  of  inquirers 
now  is  to  explain  its  nature.  This  is  what  I  have  endeavored 
to  do,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  in  this  little  ^vork.  In 
doing  this  I  have  given  an  account  diiferent  from  that  of 
Herbert  Spencer.  My  work  is  a  small  one  compared  with 
his  elaborate  volumes.  I  do  not  purpose  at  the  close  of 
it  to  review  his  theory.  In  another  number  of  this  Series  I 
propose  examining  his  philosophy  as  culminated  in  his 
Ethics.  1  am  here  merely  to  show  that  I  have  set  forth 
some  truths  not  noticed  by  that  powerful  speculator,  who 
is  as  remarkable  for  what  he  has  overlooked  as  for  what 
he  has  looked  at.  I  think  I  have  helped  somewhat  to  clear 
up  the  subject  by  representing  evolution  as  an  organized 
causation.  This  requires  us~alvvays  to  look  for  an  adequate 
cause  of  the  new  product  attributed  to  evolution.  Mr. 
Spencer,  and  his  follower  Mr.  Fiske,  refer  the  whole  to 
the  Persistence  of  Force,  as  if  there  were  only  one  power, 
and  this  apparently  only  mechanical  or  biological.     But 


48^  OVERSIGHTS   IN   SPENCER'S   EVOLUTION. 

there  are  other  powers,  or  at  least  manifestations  of  power, 
of  which  we  have  as  distinct  evidence  as  we  have  of  these. 
In  particular  there  is  a  mental  power,  of  which  we  are  con- 
scious, but  at  the  peculiarities  of  which  he  has  never  looked, 
and  which  cannot  be  produced  by  any  persistence  of  his 
forces. 

It  w^as  charged  against  Locke  by  Liebnitz,  and  repeated 
by  Cousin,  that  in  constructing  his  theory — that  all  our 
ideas  are  derived  from  sensation  and  reflection — he  did  not 
begin  with  a  careful  introspection  of  the  ideas  themselves, 
and  that,  in  fact,  he  overlooked  Jhe  peculiarities  of  some  of 
our  most  important  ideas,  such  as  infinity  and  moral  good. 
A  like  charge  may  be  brought  against  Spencer.  As  might 
be  expected  of  one  trained  as  an  engineer,  he  is  well  ac- 
quainted with  mechanical  power,  and  has  acquired  a  large 
knowledge  of  biology,  some  of  his  theories  in  wdiich,  how- 
ever, as,  for  instance,  his  development  of  nervous  forces, 
are  not  acknowledged  by  our  highest  authorities.  But  he 
seems  to  me  to  have  never  looked  patiently,  by  the  inner 
sense,  at  purely  mental  acts,  such  as  consciousness,  cogni- 
tion, moral  discernment,  and  will.  ''  I  believe  that  the  ex- 
periences of  utility,  organized  and  consolidated  through  all 
past  generations  of  the  human  race,  have  been  producing 
corresponding  nervous  modifications,  which,  by  continued 
transmission  and  accumulation,  have  become  in  us  certain 
faculties  of  moral  intuition."  Our  moral  intuitions  are 
thus  nervous  modifications  become  hereditary. 

He  speaks  often,  as  even  the  materialist  does,  of  psychical 
acts.  lie  thinks  he  has  accounted  for  them  by  evolution. 
He  has  done  so,  simply  overlooking  their  distinctive  qual- 
ities as  revealed  by  consciousness.  He  tries  to  evolve  the 
conscious  from  the  unconscious,  thought  from  that  which 
has  no  thought,  and  the  moral  from  that  which  has  no 
morality.     He  has  thus  in  the  effect  what  is  not  in  the 


OVERLOOKS   MENTAL   ACTS.  49 

cause.  If  we  scrutinize  his  theory  carefully,  we  shall  find 
that  what  he  accounts  for  is  not  properly  psychical  or  men- 
tal operation,  is  not  the  consciousness  of  self,  is  not  the 
feeling,  the  emotion,  the  reasoning,  the  resolution,  the  sen- 
timent disclosed  to  the  internal  sense.  The  mind  being 
merely  an  aggregate  of  nerves  (he  seems  incapable  of  con- 
ceiving it  as  anything  else)  he  can  so  far  account  for  it  by 
evolution.  But  when  we  look  on  mind  as  nerceiving,  judg- 
ing, discerning  between  good  and  evil,  we  discover  that  he 
has  not  explained  its  rise  by  his  evolution  ;  he  is  not  able 
to  derive  the  rational  from  the  irrational,  or  the  good  from 
that  which  has  no  moral  perception.  The  fact  is,  his  de- 
velopment is  merely  an  evolution  by  the  physical  forces, 
not  of  the  mental  acts,  but  merely  of  their  surroundings  or 
the  environment.  These  forces  do  have  a  powerful  influ- 
ence on  the  internal  or  psychical  powers,  not  in  producing 
them,  but  in  directins*  them  in  certain  channels.  He  thus 
believes  himself,  and  makes  it  appear  to  others,  that  he 
is  evolving  consciousness  and  conscience  when  he  is  merely 
developing  their  accompaniments,  and  has  never  looked  at 
anything  else.  Thus  with  all  his  zeal  for  development,  he 
has  never  noticed  seriously  the  grand  results  produced  when 
psychical,  and  especially  moral  power,  is  joined  with  phys- 
ical causation. 

I  know  full  well  that  exclusive  physicists  will  look  down 
with  contempt  upon  my  insisting  on  giving  the  higher 
intellectual  and  moral  powers  a  place  in  evolution.  But  I 
hold  these  to  be  realities  quite  as  much  as  bodies,  with  their 
energies  and  the  motion  they  produce.  It  is  not  encourag- 
ing to  the  highest  thought  to  find  how  few  of  those  who 
have  produced  such  a  revolution  in  biology  of  late  years  have 
ever  been  trained  in  colleges  or  otherwise  to  consider  purely 
mental  phenomena.  I  do  not  regard  their  disposition  to 
set  aside  these  as  a  proof  of  the  comprehensiveness  of  their 


50  OVERSIGHTS   IN   SPENCER's   EVOLUTION. 

minds,  but  ratlier  of  their  narrowness.  For  myself  I  have 
carefully  tried  never  to  allow  my  devotion  to  mental  science 
to  tempt  me  to  neglect  physical  and  physiological  facts.  I 
claim  that  never  in  my  teaching  or  in  my  writings  have  I 
set  myself  against  any  discovery  in  natural  science  which 
has  turned  out  to  be  true.  Our  naturalists  would  be 
elevated  if,  in  looking  at  material  agencies,  they  did  not 
overlook  mental,  moral,  and  spiritual  powers. '  The  full- 
orbed  truth  is  discerned  only  by  those  who  go  round  it  and 
look  at  all  its  sides.  Thus  only  can  the  mind  be  open  to 
all  knowledge,  and  become  expanded  in  any  measure  corre- 
sponding to  the  width  of  the  universe  disclosed  to  us. 


PHILOSOPHIC  SERIES 


CRITICAL  NOTICES. 


"It  is  a  familiar  experience,  that  there  is  a  gain  in  clearness  and  condensa- 
tion when  one  writes  anew  on  subjects  which  one  has  previously  handled  in 
more  copious  treatises.  In  truth,  an  author  himself  often  feels,  when  he  has 
finished  a  book,  that  he  is  just  prepared  to  write  it.  The  effect  of  the  dis- 
cussion,is  to  reduce  his  own  thought  to  its  lowest  terms,  and  to  disentangle  it 
from  surplus  and  irrelevant  matter.  The  readers  of  Dr.  McCosh's  pamphlets 
will  in  this  way  reap  the  benefit  of  the  author's  earlier  and  more  elaborate 
consideration  of  the  same  topics.  An  adherent,  though  not  a  servile  adherent, 
of  the  Scottish  school,  he  has  brought  to  his  inquiries  for  many  years  the  best 
powers  of  a  clear  and  vigorous  intellect  and  of  a  mind  well-informed  in  the  his- 
tory of  speculation.  *  *  *  The  titles  of  the  numbers  of  "The  Philosophic 
Series,"  which  are  yet  to  appear,  indicate  that  they  will  deal  with  the  most  in- 
teresting and  momentous  questions  which  are  now  agitated  among  metaphysi- 
cians and  speculative  naturalists.  It  is  gratifying  to  see  that  the  venerable 
President  of  Nassau  Hall  retains  all  the  freshness  of  his  youthful  interest  in 
these  grave  problems,  and  is  disposed  to  present  in  a  form  so  convenient  to 
readers  the  fruit  of  his  ripened  powers  and  of  the  mature  studies  of  a  life  which 
has  been  largely  devoted,  and  with  distinguished  success,  to  philosophical  re- 
flection."— New  York  Tribime. 

"  It  is  not  unlikely  to  prove  true  in  the  end  that  the  most  useful,  popular 
service  which  Dr.  McCosh  has  rendered  to  the  cause  of  right  thinking  and  to 
sound  philosophy  of  life,  is  his  philosophic  series,  the  first  number  of  which, 
Criteria  of  Diverse  kinds  of  Truth,  as  opposed  to  Agnosticism.  Being  a 
treatise  on  Applied  Logic,  we  have  perused  with  gi-eat  satisfaction.  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh has  prepared  in  the  compass  of  this  little  brochure  of  sixty  12  mo.  pages, 
which  can  easily  be  read  in  a  few  hours,  a  treatise  of  the  basis  of  knowledge  and 
the  method  of  reaching  it,  in  doing  this  he  has  placed  in  front  of  the  most  influ- 
encial  heresies  of  our  times  a  luminous  exposition  of  a  sounder  philosophy. 
*  *  *  Brief  as  the  treatise  is  it  contains  the  mature  conclusions  of  one  of  the 
foremost  philosophers  of  the  day  and  the  outlines  of  consistent  philosophy  of 
life.  The  manual  is  written  with  directness  and  vigor  and  goes  straight  to  the 
point  of  greatest  need  in  the  present  condition  of  opinion." — N.  Y.  Inde- 
petident. 

"The  author's  clean  cut  classical  method  of  putting  truth  before  his  readers, 
gives  one  a  sense  of  novelty  and  freshness,  to  attain  which  must  be  the  highest 
praise  of  a  writer  who  follows  Aristotle  and  Francis  Bacon.  *  *  *  We  rise  from 
the  study  of  this  first  number  with  a  mental  refreshment  rarely  experienced  in 
the  perusal  of  modern  philosophic  treatises." — Phila.  Episcopal  Register, 

"Dr.  McCosh's  work  grows  more  interesting  as  he  proceeds.  There  is 
something  alsolutely  new  in  his  treatment  of  the  principle  of  causation.  He 
shows  that  there  is  a  duality  or  plurality  in  causation,  also  a  duality  or  plur- 


ality  in  the  effect.  The  use  of  this  fact  is  seen  in  the  author's  attempt  to  ad- 
just the  old  doctrine  of  causation  to  the  lately  discovered  doctrine  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy  or  the  persistence  of  force.  *  *  *  jj^.^  McCosh's 
style  is  clear,  bold  and  fervid,  often  rising  into  eloquence.  He  is  easily 
understood.  For  young  men  who  wish  to  become  acquainted  with  cor- 
rect methods  of  testing  the  truth,  nothing  could  be  better  than  this  series. 
For  busy  men,  also,  this  bird's-eye  view  of  what  the  author  calls  '  a  sober 
i  philosophy,'  will  be  found  invaluable.  '  He  who  runs  may  read.'  " — Columbus 
Gazette. 

*'  This  is  the  first  of  a  promised  series  of  pamphlets  on  some  of  the  import- 
ant subjects  of  modern  philosophy.  It  need  hardly  be  said  that  whatever 
comes  from  Dr.  McCosh's  pen  is  characterized  by  remarkable  vigor  and  clear- 
ness and  even  if  the  tone  be  somewhat  dogmatic,  it  must  be  remembered 
that  it  is  the  dogmatic  tone  of  one  of  the  ablest  living  leaders  of  Scotch 
thought  The  first  of  the  series  just  referred  to  goes  over  partly  the  ground 
of  Institutions  and  the  Logic  of  the  same  author.  There  has  been  much  con- 
densation and  there  are  some  valuable  additions.  The  work  has  been  pre- 
pared with  special  reference  to  the  Agnosticism  of  the  day,  it  is  sufficiently 
controversal  to  make  it  of  interest  to  the  general  reader,  it  is  sufficiently 
simple  to  make  it  of  value  as  an  academic  text-book  of  reference." — Presby- 
terian Revieiv. 

"  This  first  issue  deals,  in  a  masterly  way,  with  the  very  popular  but  sui- 
cidal error  of  agnosticism.  It  sets  forth  the  criteria  of  first  principles,  the  ax- 
ioms of  reasoning,  and  also  those  of  individual  facts,  and  their  laws,  and  thus 
teaches  how  to  distinguish  between  diff"erent  kinds  of  truth.  It  is  thorougli 
and  clear,  and  will  be  very  helpful  to  those  who  have  become  unsettled  either 
by  the  opposing  theories  of  scholars,  or  by  the  difficulties  which  surround  al- 
most every  science  when  investigation  is  carried  beyond  the  limit  of  the 
knowable.  The  distinction  here  pointed  out  between  necessary  and  probable 
truths  is  of  great  importance.  The  want  of  this  discrimination  lies  at  the  root 
of  the  whole  system  of  agnosticism  ;  and,  we  may  add,  of  the  religious  dog- 
matism which  has  characterized  the  later  theology  of  Rome," — The  Chiirch- 
inaJi. 

"Perhaps  Dr.  McCosh  has  done  nothing  more  truly  serviceable  during  his 
long  and  useful  life,  than  the  publishing  of  these  most  valuable  pamphlets." 
— Phila.  Natio7ial  Baptist. 

"  Its  style  is  so  clear  and  direct,  its  presentation  of  the  whole  subject  is  so 
natural  and  forcible,  that  many  persons  who  habitually  ignore  discussions  of 
abstract  topics,  would  be  charmed  into  a  new  intellectual  interest  by  giving 
Dr.  McCosh's  work  a  careful  consideration." — N.    V.  Observer. 

"There  are  many,  even  of  believers,  who  will  walk  with  a  firmer  step  after 
reading  this  masterly  discussion.  —  Cincinnati  Christian  Siajidard. 

"This  is  not  a  controversial  dissertation,  but  a  clear  and  profound  state- 
ment of  the  facts,  and  laws  of  intellectual  and  moral  being  as  they  bear 
directly  on  the  question  of  spiritual  knowledge,  or  the  basis  of  faith.  Dr. 
McCosh  has  the  happy  faculty  of  stating  profound  and  abtruse  reasonings  and 
conclusions,  with  such  clearness  and  felicity  that  the  intellectual  reader  has  no 
difficulty  in  following  his  thought  and  understanding  the  points  he  makes." — 
N.   Y.  Evangelist. 


The    Emotions, 

,i;y 
JAMES  McCOSH,  D.D.,  LL.D., 

Presideiit  of  Princeton   College. 


One  Volume,  crown  8vo.,  _        -        _        $2.00. 

In  this  little  volume  of  two  hundred  and  fifty  clearly  printed  pages 
Dr.  McCosh  treats  first  of  the  elements  of  emotion,  and,  secondly,  of  the 
classification  and  description  of  the  emotions.  He  has  been  led  to  the 
consideration  of  his  theme,  as  he  says  in  his  preface,  by  the  vagueness  and 
ambiguity  in  common  thought  and  literature  in  connection  with  the  subject, 
and  by  "  the  tendency  on  the  part  of  the  prevailing  physiological  psychol- 
ogy of  the  day  to  resolve  all  feeling  and  our  very  emotions  into  nervous 
action,  and  thus  gain  an  important  province  of  our  nature  to  materialism." 
The  work  is  characterized  by  that  "  peculiarly  animated  and  commanding 
style  which  seems  to  be  a  part  of  the  author." 


CRIXaCAIi    NOTICES. 

"  Dr.  McCosh''s  style  is  as  lucid,  vigorous,  and  often  beautiful  as  of  old.  There 
5s  never  any  doubt  as  to  his  meaning,  nor  any  hesitation  in  his  utteiance." — London. 
Academy. 

"It  would  be  well  if  all  who  have  it  as  the'r  business  to  influence  the  character  of 
men  would  study  such  a  work  as  this  on  the  Emotions." — Exafniner  and  Chronicle. 

"We  recommend  it  to  all  students  as  a  perspicuous  and  graceful  contribution  to 
what  has  always  proved  to  be  the  most  popular  part  of  mental  philosophy." — fhe  N.  Y. 
Evangelist. 

"The  work  is  marked  by  great  clearness  of  statement  and  profound  scholarship — two 
thin£;s  which  are  not  always  combined.  ...  It  will  prove  attractive  and  instructive 
to  any  intelligent  reader.''— ^/^rt«^  Evening  Journal. 

"The  analysis  is  clear  and  the  style  of  crystalline  clearness.       We  are  inclined  to 

think  it  will  be  the  most  popular  of  the  author's  works.  We  have  read  it  from  beginning 

to  end  with  intense  enjoyment — with  as  much  interest,  indeed,  as  could  attach  to  any 
work  of  iicuaw."— The  Presbyterian. 

"  The  whole  subject  of  the  volume  is  treated  by  Dr.  McCosh  in  a  common  sense  way, 
with  lar^e  reference  to  its  practical  applications,  aiming  at  clearness  of  expression  and 
antness  of  illustration,  rather  than  with  any  show  of  metaphysical  acuteness  or  technical 
nicety,  and  often  with  uncommon  beauty  and  force  of  diction." — N.  Y.  Tribune. 

"Apart  from  the  comprehension  of  the  entire  argument,  any  chapter  and  almost 
every  section  will  prove  a  quickening  and  nourishing  portion  to  many  who  will  ponder 
it.  It  will  be  a  liberal  feeder  of  pastors  and  preachers  who  turn  to  it.  The  almo.st 
prodisal  ouday  of  illustrations  to  be  found  from  first  to  finis,  will  fascmate  the  reader  if 
nothing  else  ^0^%." —Christian  Intelligencer. 


*^*  For    sale    by    all    booksellers,  or    sent,    postpaid.^    upon    receipt    of 
trice,  by 

CHARLES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

743  AND  745  Broadway,  New  York. 


The  Conflicts  of  the  ^ge. 


One  Vol.,  8vo,       -       Paper,  50  Cts.  ;   Cloth,  75  Cts. 


The  four  articles   which   make   up  this   little   volume  are: 

(i)  An  Advertisement  for  a  New^  Religion.     By  an  Evolutionist. 

(2)  The  Confession  of  an  Agnostic.     By   an   Agnostic. 

(3)  What  Morality  have  we  left  ?     By  a  New-Light  Moralist. 

(4)  Review    of  the    Fight.       By   a   Yankee    Farmer. 

The  secret  of  its  authorship  has  not   yet   transpired,  and  the  reviewers 
seem  badly  puzzled  in  their  attempts  to  solve  the  mystery. 


CRITICAL     NOTICES. 

"Nowhere  can  an  ordinary  reader  see  in  a  more  simple  and  pleasing  form  the 
absurdities  which  lie  in  the  modern  speculations  about  truth  and  duty.  We  have  no  key 
to  the  authorship,  but  the  writer  evidently  holds  a  practiced  pen,  and  knows  hov/  to  give 
that  air  of  persijlage  m  ireatuig  of  serious  subjects  which  sometimes  is  more  effective 
than  the  most  cogent  dialectic."'  — C>4r/j/z.-i«  Intelligencer. 

"It  is  the  keenest,  best  sustained  exposure  of  the  weaknesses  inherent  in  cerain 
schools  of  modern  thou  ^ht,  wliic'.i  we  have  yet  come  across,  and  is  couched  in  a  vein  of 
fine  satire,  making  it  exceedinijly  readable.  For  an  in.sight  into  the  systems  it  touches 
upon,  and  for  its  suggestion.s  oi  methods  of  meeting  them,  it  is  capable  of  bemg  a  great 
help  to  the  clergy.  It  :s  a  new  d-parture  in  apologetics,  quite  in  the  spirit  of  the  time." — 
The  Living  Church, 

"The  writer  has  chosen  to  appear  anonymously;  but  he  holds  a  pen  keen  as  a 
Damascijs  blade.  Indeed,  there  are  few  m^n  living  capable  of  writing  these  papers, 
and  of  dissecting  so  thoruuehiy  the  popular  conceits  and  shams  of  the  day.  It  is  done, 
too,  witti  a  coolness,  self-possession,  an  '  scin^-froid,  that  are  inimitable,  however  un- 
comfortable it  may  seem  to  the  writliing  victims." — Ihe  Guardian. 

"  These  four  papers  are  unqualifiedly  good.  They  show  a  thorough  acquaintance 
with  the  whole  rang<i  of  philosophic  thought  in  its  modern  phases  of  development,  even 
down  to  the  latest  involutions  and  convolutions  of  the  Kvolutionists,  the  sage  unknow- 
ahleiiess  of  the  Agnostic,  and  the  New  Light  novelty  of  Ethics  without  a  conscience."  — 
Lutheran  Churi.h  Review. 

"  These  papers  are  as  able  as  thev  are  readable,  and  are  not  offensive  in  their  spirit, 
beyond  the  necessary  ofTensiveness  of  belief  to  the  believmg  mind." — N,  Y.  Christian 
Advocate. 

"The  discussion  is  sprightly,  incisive,  and  witty;  and  whoever  begins  to  read  it 
will  be  likely  to  read  it  through." — New  Knglandcr. 


***  P'or     sale    by    all     booksellers,     or    sfnt,     postpaid^    upon     receipt     of 
price,   by 

CHARLES  SCRIBNER'S  SONS,  Publishers, 

743  AND  745   Broadway,  New  York. 


DR.  McGOSH'S  WORKS, 

PUBLISHED   BY 

EGBERT  CARTER  AI^D  BROTHERS, 

NEW   YORK. 


I. 

Eleventh  Thousand. 

THE  METHOD   OF   THE    DIVINE  GOVERNMENT, 

Physical  and  Moral.     8vo.     $2.00. 

'*  It  is  refreshing  to  read  a  work  so  distinguished  for  originality  and 
soundness  of  thinking,  especially  as  coming  from  an  author  of  our  own 
country. " — Sir  William  Hamilton. 

n. 

Fourth  Thousand. 
TYPICAL  FORMS  AND  SPECIAL  ENDS  IN  CREATION. 
By  James  McCosh,  LL.D.,  and  Dr.  Dickie.     8vo.     $2.00. 

"It  illustrates  and  carries  out  the  great  principle  of  analogy  in  tlie 
Divine  plans  and  works  far  more  minutely  and  satisfactorily  than  it  has 
been  done  before  ;  and  while  it  presents  the  results  of  the  most  pro- 
found scientific  research,  it  presents  them  in  their  higher  and  spiritual 
relations." — Argus. 

m. 

Fifth  Thousand. 
THE  INTUITIONS   OF   THE   MIND.     New  and  improved 
edition.     8vo.     $2.00. 

"  Never  was  such  a  work  so  much  needed  as  in  the  present  day.  It 
is  the  only  scientific  work  adapted  to  counteract  the  school  of  Mill, 
Bain,  and  Herbert  Spencer,  which  is  so  steadily  prevailing  among  the 
students  of  the  present  generation." — London  Quarterly  Review^  April^ 
1865. 

IV. 

Second  Thousand. 
A   DEFENCE   OF  FUNDAIVIENTAL  TRUTH.     Being  an 
Examination  of  Mr.  J.  S.  Mill's  Philosophy.    8vo.  $2.00. 

"  The  spirit  of  these  discussions  is  admirable.  Fearless  and  courte- 
ous, McCosh  never  hesitates  to  bestow  praise  when  merited,  nor  to  attack 
a  heresy  wherever  found." — Congregational  Retie^o. 


V. 

Third  Edition. 

SCOTTISH  PHILOSOPHY  :  Biogbaphical,  Expository,  and 
Critical.     8vo.     $4.00. 

"Dr.  McCosli's  expositions  of  philosophical  doctrine  are  no  less  re- 
markable for  their  lucidity  than  their  fairness.  Nor  is  his  volume 
confined  to  the  mere  analysis  and  exhibition  of  speculative  theories.  It 
is  enlivened  with  numerous  personal  details,  which  present  the  great 
names  of  Scotland  in  their  domestic  and  social  environment,  and  make 
its  perusal  as  attractive  as  it  is  miovmmg.'' —Tribune, 

VI. 

Eighth  Thousand. 

LAWS  OF  DISCUKSIVE  THOUGHT  :  Being  a  Text-Book 
of  Formal  Logic.     12mo.     $1.50. 

TJie  iieculiarity  of  this  icoi^k  is  that  while  it  treats  fully  of  the  proposi- 
tion and  reasoning^  it  unfolds  specially  the  nature  of  the  notion. 

' '  This  little  treatise  is  interesting  as  containing  the  matured  views  of 
one  of  the  most  vigorous  reasoners  of  the  times  on  the  forms  of  reason- 
ing. It  is  written  with  singular  directness  and  vigor.  .  .  .  The 
use  of  this  work  as  a  text-book  in  schools  and  colleges  will  afford  admir- 
able training  to  students.  .  .  .  It  is  doubtful  whether  there  is  any- 
where a  class-book  in  this  science  likely  to  be  so  generally  acceptable." 
— Evening  Post. 

vn. 

Sixth  Thousand. 

CHRISTIANITY  AND  POSITIVISM.  A  Series  of  Lectures 
to  the  Times  on  Natural  Theology  and  AjDologetics. 
12mo.     $1.75. 

*'  Dr.  McCosh  is  a  man  of  great  learning,  of  powerful  intellect,  clear, 
and  sharp,  and  bold  in  utterance.  These  lectures  present  the  result  of 
years  of  labor,  in  a  form  to  be  useful  to  all  classes  of  minds,  and  espe- 
cially instructive  and  comforting  to  those  who  have  been  troubled  by 
the  skeptical  suggestions  of  some  modern  naturalists.  The  volume  will 
prove  immensely  valuable  to  ministers  and  Bible-class  teachers,  as  it 
furnishes  ready  and  conclusive  answers  to  objectors  and  skeptics,  and 
assurance  to  inquiring  minds.  It  is  an  able  and  timely  book." — Baptist 
Union. 


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